


The worst kind of DeTermination

by KiN_99



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: A LOT of Character Death, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Be Careful What You Wish For, Big Brother W. D. Gaster, Bittersweet Ending, Chara (Undertale) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Character Death, Cinnamon Roll Papyrus (Undertale), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everybody is having a bad time, Fix-It of Sorts, Flowey (Undertale) Being an Asshole, Flowey Remembers Resets (Undertale), Frisk Remembers Resets (Undertale), Gen, Good W. D. Gaster, Inspired by DARK Series (Netflix), It Gets Worse, My First Undertale Fanfic, Never better, Nonbinary Chara & Frisk (Undertale), Not a Happy Story, One does not simply, Pain, Parent Grillby (Undertale), Poor Life Choices, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Pre-Accident Sans (Undertale), Pre-Accident W. D. Gaster, Protective Grillby (Undertale), RESET is not an option, Reader Is Not Frisk (Undertale), SAVED Asriel Dreemurr, Sans (Undertale) Has Issues, Sans (Undertale) Remembers Resets, Sans is Having a Bad Time (Undertale), Sans is a little bit of a scientist himself, Save everyone, Science Bros, Skelebrothers, Somebody save the scientist, Suffering, Terminal Illnesses, The Void, The void is real and it can hurt you, Time Loop, Time machine, Undertale Monsters on the Surface, Undertale Saves and Resets, Veteran Grillby (Undertale), What-If, finished work, gaster is so done, okay there is fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-18 13:27:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 34,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29734563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiN_99/pseuds/KiN_99
Summary: What if it was Sans the one who fell into the void and was scattered between time and space instead of Gaster?INSPIRED BY THE SERIES "DARK" ON NETFLIX. IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED IT SHAME ON YOU.

(And yes, that was a pun. This story gets darker yet darker.)
Comments: 51
Kudos: 23





	1. Author notes

Hello, hello. 

Like always, the first chapter in every single work that I do will be "Author notes"  
Why do you ask? Well, because I am still planning the story but I have most of key scenes inside my mind, this is the way I save my work without having a first chapter ready, also, I would like to write down some things I would like you to know before you enter this hell of an adventure full of plotwists and good stuff.

1\. I have no idea how many chapters long it will be  
2\. English is not my first language, expect typos  
3\. I try to keep swearing to a minimum and absolutely there will be no NSFW, smut, sex etc... NONE.  
4\. If you want to do any artwork please credit  
4.5 Does this count as an AU? It's a weird combination between DARK and Undertale so....eh...  
5\. This story will carry on for as long as my MV levels are up (Motivation). When my MV runs out I will go on hiatus until I recover.  
6\. I love to read comments and feedback, don't be shy!  
7\. No other AU's will be part of this story, if you want Under/fell/swap or other please click away because this is not the story for you.  
8\. Do you want a happy story? Is Sans your favourite character? Too bad! 

Prepare for a good ride, first chapter coming soon.


	2. Before

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A loop has to start somewhere

The barrier was broken, monsters moved up the surface and everybody was happy...well, maybe not everybody. A certain skeleton had to be carried home from the bar last night, Sans was drunk on ketchup and special alcohol he loaned from Grillby's. Again.

The next morning he woke up and repeat. He didn't even change clothes most days, he could walz down the street with his blue hoodie and slippers, stinking of ketchup and grease, yet he was always grinning to himself without a care for the world. Completely aloof. If anybody dared to intervene to know what was going through his mind, he teleported away, if it was his brother though he did not escape but he shooed him off with bad puns. 

Toriel was the hardest to shoo, not only because of their friendship but because the kid was always with her. "My child" the boss monster called them, and she practically adopted the kid. Frisk was content, that is until they realised Sans was not a bit motivated to take part in their happy ending even after they promised they would not RESET again.

"- It's not about that kid.-" He said, and shrugged it off as nothing. 

Frisk had enough and decided to sleep-over at the skeleton's house on a Friday, in order to spend the weekend with them. Papurys of course was delighted, he made spaghetti, they had dinner, they played video-games... but during the night the child sneaked out of the guest room without a word. Sans heard their footsteps because he slept with one eye open like a predator, he could feel where the child was heading, and the moment he heard the light of the kitchen switch-on he took a shortcut downstairs, wouldn't like to risk falling down the stairs and forcing a RESET. He and Frisk made a deal, every time he screwed something up and accidentally died, the kid would reset and Sans would treat them to an extra hot dog for the trouble. 

Sans was chronically at 1HP and there was nothing nobody could do to make it better, Alphys even dared to make some tests and found out his condition was due to radiation damage, which affected his soul too, thus the ability to take shortcuts through time and space. The more shortcuts he takes the worse it gets and it's draining as much as it is terminal. Sans shrugged her words off and left, asking her not to tell anybody because if he suddenly falls down that's nobody's business, the kid can always reset if he dies, they always do. 

Frisk hates to see everybody grieving, and Sans can really die if he isn't careful enough. During the last RESET, Sans did not dust, _he fell down_. Isn't that strange? All of a sudden he "took a nap" on Grillby's restaurant and that was it, ketchup bottle still gripped on his hand. Grillby had been in the war and he'd never seen something like it, he thought Sans just fell asleep like usual but he never woke up. The fire elemental monster tried his best to reanimate him until the healers came but it was no use. 

Because Sans is like any monster he had seen before, he wasn't surprised when Alphys explained the diagnosis to everybody. Needless to say, the shock was shared between them but most understood because it's obvious this was meant to happen someday. Frisk did not understand. That was the moment they realised they could never have the happy ending they so desired. That day they promised themselves this would be the last RESET, and once they made it to the surface again they were going to have a serious talk with the smiling skeleton.

Today was the day.

"- Aiming for the knives kid? Second drawer to your right.-"

Frisk jumped-scared. They hated when he does that, and it's twice as scary if his eye sockets are completely black, that's means STATS are being checked.

*** Fallen Child "Frisk"**  
*** LV 1 EXP 0 HP 25**  
*** A true pacifist.**

"- I wanted... chocolate.-" The child murmured under their breath, but acted as if they were caught stealing cookies out from a jar. Sans's white pupils came back, when thinking of Toriel they seemed a tad brighter. 

"- What would your mother say if she knew about you eating chocolate at...-" Sans paused to look at the clock hanging on the wall. "- 2:45 AM -"

"- You are not you when you are hungry.-" Frisk said, and opened the cabinet where the chocolate was kept. They snatched two small bars. "- Want one?-"

Sans eyeballed at the snack offered to him and sighed but Frisk cannot differentiate his sigh of relief from his sigh of desperation. That smile on his face is also chronic. 

"- It's not the buttons kid, it's not that. You know I trust you.-" He shrugged, hands on his pockets as always, number one sign he's hiding something. Frisk took a bite of the chocolate bar, placing the other on their back pocket for later.

"- Then what is it?! Why did you fall down in the last timeline?-"

"- It's not important.-" Sans's voice echoed in the empty kitchen, in his empty sockets too. The energy coming from him was so low it dimmed every colour on sight to grey.

"- Yes _it is_! You can't keep on dying for no reason Sans, I want a happy ending too but you are _ruining_ it!-"

"- Then don't reset and leave me for dead. Simple huh?-" He chuckled.

"- I can't do that Sans! Everybody is sad when you fall down. Alphys goes to therapy because she feels guilty for not saying it sooner, Undyne can't wait to kick your ass on the other side, mom doesn't laugh anymore and Papyrus practically sleeps with your dust jar. That is not the good ending that I want!-"

The smaller skeleton only shrugged his shoulders, but even that seemed like an effort. One day he will go to sleep and not wake up, he knows this. Who cares what he wants? He already knows what will everybody do when he dies because the kid keeps reminding him.

"- I want to heal you, make you happy...I want you to TRY. You must know how to help yourself but you don't want to tell me! I can help you! I want to help you!-"

Sans couldn't shrug those words off as a normal temper tantrum, that determination overflowing from the kid's SOUL started glowing like a star on their chest as they spoke. That was the power to do ANYTHING. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to tell them this once. His hope was practically none so there was nothing to loose, and no matter what he said to this kid, this kid would do it. A trip the moon? sure, finding a unicorn? count them it. As crazy as it sounds, maybe there was a chance.

Sans inhaled, slowly. His eye sockets went black. _"You'd be dead where you stand"_ Is what crossed Frisk's mind at that moment, but they ignored the deja-vu.

"- You know about the machine...the one at my place back in snowdin. Like the weed, you read every book and burned every book. I know you saw it already.-"

"- Yeah. What of it?-"

So Sans started explaining, like a broken record that finally started rolling the tape he told the kid everything. That machine was supposed to be a teleporter across time and space, he thought of the idea and his big brother made it but the machine never worked because it lacked the power to even turn on, so he made a bigger version of it in the core which is a power source by itself. What he didn't see coming is that the core overloaded said machine, he underestimated the power of the underground and the barrier.

As a result, he accidentally and tragically scattered himself across time and space in an explosion that acted as a catalyst of a poorly made combination between a "shortcut" and a RESET. His name was W.D Gaster. Nobody but Sans remembers he ever existed, the only evidence being the core, the true lab, that machine and a bunch of blueprints. Oh, and let's not forget Sans himself. He was there when the explosion happened, the evidence still lingers on him and one day will be the end of him. 

"- I think I met him once while I was playing around the files and stuff, he got scared and disappeared when he saw me.-" Frisk explained as they scrunched the empty chocolate wrapping between both hands, making a ball out of it. They munched as they spoke, Sans didn't seem to mind, for once his interest seemed piqued in something other than Frisk going for the other chocolate bar in their pocket. Oh, Toriel would be so mad about this. 

"- What did he look like?-" 

"- Not a skeleton for sure.-" Replied the child, and once again they offered the chocolate bar to Sans who took it after hesitating for a bit. 

"- Well, here's the catch. He's not only my bro but he's also the smartest monster to ever exist, and if I could find a way to get him back he could find a way to heal my stats. You could save two birds with one stone kid.-"

Frisk hummed. "- But you said he's a scientist, not a doctor.-"

"- Neither is Alphys! Gaster was a veteran like Grillbs, and Grillbs may not remember anything but he's been giving me crap for free since as far as I can remember so there must be something in there. My bro is not completely forgotten yet.-"

"- Grillby freaked out because you fell down on his restaurant, right on his face! -"

"- That's not the point I'm trying to make here kid. Gaster and I worked together when paps was a babybones alright? I was the ideas guy, he was the brains to make my every word come true, and my great idea that was supposed to save the day ruined everything.-" He huffed in disbelief. 

"- What was your idea?-"

A few seconds of silence filled in the gap between them. Sans took a big bite of the chocolate bar.

"- I wanted to teleport the entire underground outside the barrier and my bro tried his hardest to make it happen...but what did I get? Chronic radiation, strange powers, and the genocide of the entire team including my bro.-" Sans lifted up four fingers consecutively and huffed again. Never had Frisk seen someone eat a chocolate bar so angrily, as a judge, it must be a pain to see how much Karma he already accumulated and he ran out of ideas to fix it.

"- You don't get it, I made this to myself kid.-"

"- Okay. Let's bring them back.-" Frisk concluded, ignoring the last statement. They watched how Sans did a ball with his chocolate wrapping too. Despite having eaten his HP didn't get any better, he remained forever at 1 so if they were going on an adventure together, he would have to be very, very careful.

"- W-wait, what?! The entire science team?-" He exclaimed, taking a step forwards.

"- I promised to SAVE every monster in the underground.-"

Sans growled, instinctively placing a boney hand to rub the back of his skull. "- You couldn't even save the weed, the machine won't work, I don't even know how to work it. I tried _everything_!-" 

The child smiled as if possessed. "- Have you tried... **determination**?-" Their soul glowed upon being mentioned by it's former name. 

Sans took two steps back, ready to dodge because despite speaking to a true pacifist, he has 1HP and a single slap of this kid would be the end of him.

"- Whoah,whoah,whoah kid. Cut the smiles. Is that even you speaking?-"

Frisk once again went serious, poker faced even upon seeing his reaction. Frisk really wanted to help, their expression just made it hard to show.

"- Sometimes I don't know.-"

Sans huffed again. "- So you are saying, you want me to inject your determination inside a machine that never worked and hope for the best? Like what happened to the weed?-"

"- The underground shut down remember? nothing works anymore, not even the core. Determination is the only thing we have.-" Frisk mumbled. Imagining everything abandoned made them feel a tad homesick. They loved the underground! Besides, flowey is there. 

Sans wasn't thrilled one bit, he sounded desperate if anything. 

"- If I use your determination as a power source you could die, I can't screw things up again.-"

"- I'm not the only one with determination.-" Exclaimed Frisk with pride, and watched how Sans furrowed his eyes. His smile faltered a bit. 

"- You mean...-"

"- I won't tell a word to Alphys if you won't tell mom.-" 

The pause lingered. 

"- Kid, are you sure you want to help me with this? I don't mind dying over and over again, it's kind of a routine you know? Going to Grillbs and getting ketchup and burgers for free... I call it the "terminal disease" bingo card. I die, you reset, and it repeats. It's a game.-"

"- _I'm not playing!_ -" Frisk yelled. Sans flinched. "- I don't... I don't want to play anymore. Not again.-"

Frisk sniffled, the small red soul was filled with determination! Sans's SOUL however would be exposed to more radiation, and that is not what he had in mind, but if that would mend his mistakes then...

"- I preferred when you wanted me dead.-" He practically sighed his words as he rubbed his left eye-socket. Sans looked permanently tired too, no matter how much sleep he got, he never recovered. Why did he survive? Not even he knows that, but he doesn't feel particularly lucky, Papyrus is his only reason to live.

"- You didn't make yourself easy to kill. Can you stop judging me now?-" Whined Frisk, like a lost puppy with a personality disorder. Sans exhaled a soft chuckle, no need to check their stats, they haven't changed one bit.

"- Alright, let's stop the death-threats for now. You need to _ket-chup_ with sleep or else you won't be allowed to spend the night here again. -"

"- Can we go tomorrow?-" Frisk stopped him from walking away by grabbing him gently by the hoodie. The skeleton froze, concern edged on his face as he half-turned.

"- Kid, you know I'll hold for another month, two tops. We don't have to rush it.-"

By looking at the kid in the eye, Sans knew they were going tomorrow. 

***

"- Howdy!-" Exclaimed the flower, the one who always greets them to the underground in this very spot. Every time. 

"- Heya weed.-" Replied Sans, Frisk just raised their hand, a big school bag hanged from their shoulders. The expression on Flowey changed to a very smug and evil smile.

"- What's a smiley trashbag like you doing here? Normally Frisk comes here alone, crying their eyes out because _boo-hoo Sans died of a papercut!_ Or a better one! I got a better one! _Sans is sick and I want my happy ending for everyooone, I want to reseeeet boo hoo_.-"

"- Heh. Classic.-" Chuckled the skeleton, eyeballing at Frisk that puffed out their cheeks in embarrassment. 

"- We are going to save Gaster so he can cure Sans you hear me?!-" They exclaimed, and to say that flowey froze was probably an understatement. The talking flower knows, but to be honest, it's more like he remembered that name. Asriel was still alive when Gaster was the royal scientist, so was Chara.

Flowey went completely serious and blank, the memories he has of Gaster are not very good, but sadly, that feeling didn't last for long. Flowey couldn't "feel" for more than four seconds.

"- _HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!_ You think you are in control?! And how do you think you will do that?!-"

"- Without your flowery ass bickering behind our backs for starters.-" Replied Sans with his canonical smile plastered on his face as he placed his arm around Frisk.

"- WAIT!-" That's all flowey could say before they disappeared before his eyes.

Home. Snowdin. Sans didn't even feel homesick when he opened his eyes and realised he was back in his cold room, all messy and unorganised because he didn't pack anything to go.

"- Are you ok?-" Asked Frisk when Sans started panting. Sweat poured down his skull and the human felt tempted to raise his shirt just to double-check.

"- Just tired that's all. Give me some space will ya?-" He huffed. The child did as told with a nod and waited until Sans recovered his breath a bit.

"- Alright kiddo, you know the drill. I go downstairs and read the blueprints only I can understand while you head over to the real lab and get as many flowers as you can handle in your inventory. I need to refresh my mind a bit so take your time.-"

Frisk nodded. They were filled with determination! 

With the bag on their shoulders, they marched outside and Sans was able to breathe a little easier in the solitude of his home, that is, until he heard that annoying voice after Frisk's footsteps faded a bit.

"- It's rude to leave in the middle of a conversation you know?-"

Despite being exhausted, Sans ran towards the door and upon opening it, he was welcomed with the sight of Frisk standing in the snow with vines clinging to both of their legs, that annoying yellow flower smiled from petal to petal.

"- Weed, let the kid go. NOW.-" He ordered, his right eye slowly glowing blue.

"- Not unless you tell me what you are planning, _trashbag_.-"

Sans growled. The vines around Frisk's legs tightened, and after a couple seconds of watching Frisk squirm in pain, Sans's smile suddenly became wider. He had an idea for the first time in years. Flowey noticed that as a red flag and faltered his grip on the child, Sans extended his hand forwards.

Was he going to use blue magic on the kid? That would hurt them even more! Flowey had a good grip on them this time so they would not go anywhere if Sans dared to teleport.

"- Kid, change of plans. We're using this one.-" 

Flowey flinched.

"- W-wait...what? Using me? Use me for WHAT you smiley trashbag? **HEY!** -"

Before Flowey could escape under the snow, his body went blue and he couldn't move a single petal, couldn't even throw friendliness pellets to defend himself and kill Sans in one hit if he got very lucky. Sans may not be as determined as the kid, but he was very pissed off and refused to allow his golden chance to slip because of a talking flower that could actually be useful.

"- If you had enough determination to wake up from the dead and mess up with timelines before the kid fell, that means you and the kid must have roughly the same amount. Am I right?-" He asked, but it sounded more like a demand. His sockets were black like voids, his smile in crescendo.

Flowey started getting very nervous, tears peeked his little eyes. 

"- T-that's... I... that was Chara's determination! I was nothing but dust! I don't know why I exist! I should be DEAD! -"

Sans didn't falter, didn't hesitate to root the shivering flower off the ground. _"- Please...-"_ Flowey whined in a tiny, minuscule voice, but when he looked at him in the eye Sans looked...sad.That is an expression the flower had never seen on him, and he killed Papyrus enough times to do more than a simple "double check". Did the "trashbag" have any other emotions? Apparently yes.

"- Heh. Guess we have something in common then.-" 


	3. The present and the past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The title says it all, I wouldn't want to spoil anything on the summary

"- This is the worst day of my entire life.-" 

"- Shut it weed.-" Sans grunted under his breath. The skeleton was currently translating one of the blueprints and writing down notes over the symbols. He wasn't using a calculator so he used all the advanced maths techniques he learned over the years, he was a bit rusty though which is why he was taking a bit longer.

It didn't take much effort to explain Flowey everything, and still the flower did not want to cooperate with their plan. The golden flower became a hostage to the human that held them as carefully as they could, Flowey grasped his vines around their arm like a bracelet.

"- I'm refuse to be one of your petty experiments if the void is involved. What if I die?! What if...What if _Frisk_ dies?!-"

"- Then they'll RESET and we will try this again, as many times as it takes.-" Sans replied casually. Flowey was shocked for a moment and looked up to see the human face to face.

"- And you are alright with this? You are not possessed or anything? -"

Frisk just nodded. Determination was written all over their features.

"- Huh. Thought your entire family would be at gunpoint. I mean, that's what Gaster did with Chara to get them to cooperate.-"  
Sans stopped writing, a shadow crossed the human's face. It has been long since they heard that name. _Chara_. The first fallen child.

"- He did... _what now_?-" The incredulity on Sans's face was another emotion Flowey had never seen on him before. Nothing ever surprises him, but this, this is what tipped him over the edge. Sans remembers a good and responsible older brother, a bit goofy, loved puns, dedicated to his work and the king, smart... not _this_. Child experimenting? Really?

"- Why the hell do you think Chara was so determined to save monster kind after that idiot erased himself from existence? The memories of him were gone but the feeling stayed on them and they didn't care to die if that would save everyone!-" 

Frisk started shaking, Flowey continued. 

"-The determination that the lizard used to experiment on stuff and revive me was THEIRS you know?! When I woke up, I remembered everything! Your brother is an IDIOT. I don't wanna bring him back! **HEY! DON'T CRY ALL OVER ME!** -"

The silence filled the tiny lab, only broken by the human sobbing. Sans froze with the pen still in hand because too many mixed feelings filled him up at once. He wanted to burn the flower in hell, but at the same time he was curious to what Flowey would say next.

"- I don't care what you think, weed. I'm gonna bring them all back and I am going to find out if what you say is true. If it isn't...-" 

"- You what? You are going to _kill_ me?-" Flowey snapped. "- Because I know about Determination more than anybody here! I have no soul yet I used it and I know how _eeeeverything_ works. And you know what? Your stupid machine WON'T work.-"

"- Why are you so **sure**?!-" Sans barked, already standing up.

"-Determination is not your usual unlimited power source, it's alive and it has memories too, _trashbag_. That's how one can SAVE and stuff. When I say I remembered him, I mean I see your brother shoving Chara in a machine just like this one against their will! And it didn't work!-"

"- _I WANT TO TRY!_ -" Frisk yelled all of a sudden, thus cutting the argument short. Tears rolled down their cheeks but they kept themselves determined. Sans hesitated. 

"- Kid...you don't have to- it's not your fault.-" He sputtered.

"- I want to save them Sans. If I don't try you will die, and I want to save you too.-" 

"- _plEEASE_ get over this quickly.-" Flowey groaned, cringing from the tender moment.

Sans sighed and got back to work without a word. Whoever said monsters can't be determined never got to meet Gaster, and it seems that problem runs in the family. 

An hour later, both Frisk and Flowey stood inside the machine that was apparently "ready to go". They were determined to make it happen, although they shook a bit as they heard Sans speak from the other side of the see-through glass. Flowey remained intertwined on their arm, grunting in displeasure.

"- Alrighty, if my numbers are not wrong we need enough DT power to open up a breach in time and space for five seconds, careful not to create a loop or mess up with any other...-"

"- Just click the DAMN button! I've got places to be!-" Flowey yelled, cutting Sans short for only a second. He huffed. Tough crowd.

"- So anyways, back to what I was saying...-"

"- Sans.-"

Urgh.

"- Yes kid?-"

"- I'm scared.-"

Sans sighed and placed his boney hand against the glass, Frisk raised theirs so both could meet and carried Flowey along with it. Sans smiled, although he always did that.

"- You two are safe. if anything, it's me who should be bone-rattling now. Heh.-" And with that last chuckle, he pressed the button and Frisk saw red, it was their own SOUL glowing.

Red. Everything turned red, the sound was too loud but it could be a combination of Flowey and Frisk screaming. The floor started shaking, the force of the machine was such that the door to outside opened and allowed cold wind and snow to come and hit Sans in the back. Nothing was happening other than papers flying everywhere and an ear-raping sound that was far too familiar for Sans, no void was opening. Where was his brother? where is everyone?

Sans closed his eyes because the right one started glowing blue due to fear, his soul started aching. No,no,no,no...this was wrong! This couldn't be happening! Not again!

"- **GASTER!** -" He yelled at the top of his lungs, and his very own power that before he could use at will, his "shortcut" as he likes to call it, teleported Sans across time and space to somewhere else. Somewhere unknown to Sans. The void took everybody away from him, and Sans gave in to the void.

Dark.

Darker.

Yet darker.

Exhausted. That's how he would define it better. 

_"-Welp... I'm still in Snowdin so I didn't teleport too far.-"_ He thought to himself, and sighed with relief.

"- Uuuurghh...-" He groaned, every single bone hurt, but he wasn't dead so that's good. It took him too long to realise he was face-planted on the snow, on a very familiar place where he once made a snowpuff and wrote his name on top with ketchup because Papyrus kept insisting he wanted to do snow figures. Wait... where is Papyrus's awesome snow figure? And his?

There is no time to think about snow figures. The kid. He had to check if the kid was alright. He didn't give too much care about Flowey, that brat was just lucky enough to be alive.

There is no way he would teleport again after this so he opted for walking home and that was a very big mistake. When he walked out of that forest, he expected Snowdin to be empty and abandoned, not full of life and monsters going left and right. 

He froze, and ironically, nearly died where he stood due an aneurysm. This felt like his first RESET.

"-I'm dreaming.-" He mumbled to himself, eye sockets completely black and empty due to shock. He was, in fact, not dreaming. Monster kind wasn't on the surface anymore. Where did he go? Did the kid RESET again? he hoped so, but every time they did he always woke up on his room so that's something different. 

"-Damn, so the kid did reset again...what a pain.-" He thought, but still there was something off here. This Snowdin didn't feel much like home, if a RESET had taken place then Flowey would be the first one to meet him and say something like:

_"- I told you that wouldn't work, trashbag!-"_

God, for the first time in forever he hoped to see that flowery bastard.

Sans placed on his hoodie to cover his face and walked home while looking around as little as he could, but he couldn't ignore the laughing and the talking, the children running... but where is monster kid? Where are the canine sentries? He knows that monster over there, oh, and that one! they fell down and became amalgamates.

 _"- This isn't a normal RESET.-"_ Sans concluded a bit too late, but to be fair, he was too exhausted to think straight, his soul was aching. He wanted to go home.

He froze mid-way. Grillby's bar had colourful balloons pinned all over and a sign that said in capital letters: **"NEW OPENING"**

Sans looked away with a chuckle and kept on walking. This couldn't be happening. He remembered the day Grillby's opened, Gaster treated Papyrus to ice cream and Sans to a burger with extra ketchup, just the way he liked it. That was the day before his brother was eaten by the void, and speaking of, Gaster was actually coming his way _with_ Papyrus eating ice cream and _himself_. He was dressed differently back then, a bit more teenage-ish.

"- F*ck.-" He hissed. Hide. He had to hide. Sans is smart enough to know how loops are made, and meeting himself is the number one reason. God, he travelled to the past! he teleported himself before even resets were made. 

Sans couldn't even look at the three skeletons from afar for less than one second before he took a shortcut behind the nearest trees when he made sure nobody was looking, the hoodie covered his face so it's not like anybody recognised him. Now safe, Sans panted, sweat curled down his eye socket and his smile faltered. His hands shook so much he couldn't even hug himself to calm down or breathe properly. 

Breathe. He had to breathe. He couldn't be having a panic attack now!

"- Here we are! Grillbys bar and restaurant. Let's enjoy the day off here.-" Said Gaster with glee, the younger and happier version of Sans stood beside him with stars in his eyes upon seeing the balloons and the size of the place, he held the hand of Papyrus who was so small he could hardly reach the hand of his older brother. Papyrus wore a striped shirt.

"- That's so cool!-" Sans exclaimed, his voice sounded younger like a teenager, voice cracks and all.

"- BUT NICE CREAM IS SO MUCH COOLER!-" Peeped the youngest, he jumped and spoke with so much energy that the nice cream dripped all over his stripped shirt, staining it.

"- I can get as many burgers as I want for free?-" Asked Sans with a big smile on his face, raw emotion made his eyes glow with the faintest of yellows.

"- Don't overuse your privileges Sans, just today. Tomorrow we celebrate for real.-" 

"- You are the best, G-man. Monster kind needs more of you.-" 

Gaster chuckled. "- One of me is more than enough.-"

Just hearing his voice made Sans want to start crying right where he stood, but he waited until the three skeletons walked inside Grillbys to release a sob. The sound of a bell jingle was his cue to leave, but he couldn't leave now, he had to do something! If he really is where he thinks he is then he has only one chance at this. He has to save Gaster no matter what, and not only him, the rest of the science team too.

With the hoodie covering his entire head and face, Sans followed the three skeletons from behind the shadows all day and waited for night to come, and when it did, he did the unthinkable. Sans took a shortcut to his own room, a neat room with no tornado and no clothes scattered around. Posters of science filled the walls and a lab coat made to size hanged from the side of his bed, next to his bed was a bedside table that had so many thick books stacked one on top of the other that the lamp had to sit on top of them all. In the wall there was also pinned a drawing that Papyrus made, it was a drawing of the three of them holding hands, Sans and Gaster wearing lab coats of course.

 **" don't forget "**

Sans huffed. How could he forget the smell of dinner, the puns, the warmth of a home... everything he wanted sat downstairs and he couldn't do anything about it.

But he could now. This was his chance to make everything right.

He couldn't warn himself though, that's why he hesitated before picking up a paper and a pen. What if he messed up everything again? He messed up once, he could perfectly do it twice. He couldn't risk it when the kid wasn't here to RESET and make everything right again. If he died then it's all over and he had only 1HP, he couldn't teleport too much in one day either. If his younger self saw him now, he would freak out for sure.

His STATS are something to die for. 

Enough puns. How will he stop what's coming tomorrow? What can he say to evacuate everyone before the machine explodes? How will he stop Gaster, the most determined monster he's ever met? He sat down on his bed, exhaling a sigh. Is it a good idea to meet himself? Maybe the two of them could come up with something, but that was too risky. 

For now, he listened to the voices coming from downstairs.

"- If everything goes as it should Sans, I asked king Asgore to promote you as a royal scientist like me. As an apprentice, of course, but under my tuition and supervision. What do you two think?-" 

"- WOWEE!-" Exclaimed Papyrus with glee, his mouth was covered in red pasta sauce from the spaghetti they were having for dinner.

 _"- Really!?-"_ Sans was so excited he stood up from the dinner table, not minding the chair that nearly fell backwards. He was booming with excitement and energy. Gaster chuckled.

"- The idea was yours after all, I only made it happen, but if I taught you how to make your own ideas come true I'm sure you can accomplish great things for monster kind. -"

Upstairs, Sans's right eye glowed a faint blue. **"-Liar.-"** He grumbled under his breath, and took a shortcut outside.

He knew exactly what to do now. Ironically, Flowey gave him inspiration for that idea, the idea that will stop this stupid project all-together.

"-I can't believe I will have to thank the weed for this.-" He chuckled to himself.

***

Sans heard the snow creaking below his feet with every step he made, he had not taken the hoodie off all day and his slippers were already white with snow. He was vividly shaking too. It's a shame he couldn't physically stop smiling, honestly, what he was about to do was criminal.

 _"- Tra-la-la I'm the riverperson. A riverwoman or a riverman? It doesn't matter.-"_ Sang the monster standing on top of the cat-shaped boat. 

Sans stopped before said monster. This is the only "person!" he knows that wouldn't question his existence here. It's a shame he can't teleport far anymore, he's used his magic enough for today. 

"- Can I have a ride?-" He asked. The river-person hummed and hesitated for a couple of seconds, as if they were examining the exhaustion on Sans's face.

"- Where would you like to go?-" 

"- Hotland.-" Replied Sans, as clear as he could be.

"- Well, hop on in.-"

The ride there was quiet at first, and Sans silently enjoyed every second of it until...

_"- Tra la la. Beware of the man who came from the other world.-"_

Heh. Was it that obvious? 

The heat in Hotland was very much welcome, he also knew by memory the password to the labs so he practically walzed in there because he knew everything like the back of his hand, the only thing he didn't do was switch on the lights because he knew the alarms would flare up if the cameras got a glimpse of him. He did not want to uncover himself would he?

"- Piece of cake.-" He thought as he sat down in front of a computer, his brother's computer, and he started tapping. Only the light of the screen illuminated him.

"- MMhhmhm password. What password? My name? Paps?-" He mumbled to himself, but the computer did not allow him to log on.

After a short pause an idea came to mind, if it worked, he owned the kid free hot dogs for an entire month. 

**D.E.T.E.R.M.I.N.A.T.I.O.N**

He pressed enter, the smile on his face widened. He's getting used to "trying" now. He clapped his hands once, as if congratulating himself with a high five.

"- Heh. Classic.-" 

Now logged inside the system, it didn't take too long for him to find the files he was looking for and print them out, they were written in wingdings so obviously he had to translate them first. Took him a while, but not an hour later he had exactly what he needed. All the experiments Gaster did to extract determination from Chara, all the manipulation... everything was written down and documented to perfection. 

"- Poor kid.-" Sans sighed, for once feeling real pity for the megalomaniac. After each extraction, at least Gaster was kind enough to heal them and give them food but that doesn't make it any better. What he did is not right. The fact that he didn't give up after the first failure made it worse even. Gaster tried motivating Chara in increasing their determination in the worst ways possible, he broke them.

No wonder he got erased from existence. No wonder he got the short end of the stick.

Sans started laughing to himself after he shut down the computer and entered into the elevator. He started loosing his mind at around 2PM but now it was 11:35PM and he was absolutely livid. Crazy doesn't define it. 

After the chuckles dimmed, his smile faltered and he went serious not a second later, once again that strange sadness took over, but now it felt more like disappointment.

"- Asgore will freak when hears you experimented on his kid, G-man. And here I thought you were the coolest.-" He said out loud, to absolutely nobody.

Never had Flowey's words affected him, but now, Sans truly felt like a trashbag. 

There was never a need to involve his past self into this. Sans is the judge now, and this freaky project of his is officially cancelled.

"- _get dunked on._ -" He wished he could say, but he kept that to himself. He smiled on his way to the throne room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Being a judge has it's perks


	4. Into the void of desperation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To protect the world from devastation! To unite all monsters within our nation! To denounce the evils of truth and love! To extend our reach to the stars above!   
> Undyne! And Sans!

The day started as usual. Wake up, shower... the skelebrothers had their routine already memorised. Sans woke up the earliest so he could shower first, then he helped Papyrus get ready while Gaster cooked breakfast for the three of them. The eldest brother used the bickering between his youngest siblings to wake up, no need for an alarm if Papyrus is in the house.

"- Sans, don't forget to bring your lab coat! It's very important!-" Gaster yelled from downstairs, a box of cereal and two empty bowls waited on the kitchen table. The eldest loved his coffee fresh, he also knew Sans liked his cereal with coffee instead of milk, that's one of many weird eating habits that Sans has, he calls it the "middle child bingo card".

"- Okay!-" Sans replied as he focused on his half-dressed younger brother standing before him. Because yesterday's striped shirt was stained with ice cream and tomato sauce, today's stripped shirt was a different colour. Instead of white and red it was orange and yellow.

"- There. All dressed up. Let me tie your scarf the way you like it and we are ready to go.-" Sans explained while they tenderly grabbed the red fabric and placed it around Papyrus's neck. 

"- WHY CAN'T I HAVE A COAT, SANS?-" 

"- the coat's just for show bro, you are cool just the way you are. No need for a coat.-" Sans replied with a big smile, and to top it off, gave him a soft noogie on the head.

"-AAAAH DON'T NOOGIE THE SKELETON!-" Papyrus complained under the grasp of his older brother, Sans chuckled. "Too precious for this world" doesn't define it sometimes.

As the brothers went down the stairs, Papyrus being extra careful by handing the rail, loud knocking on the front door brought the attention of all. Gaster groaned loudly from the kitchen.

"- I'll get it bro! Don't sweat!-" Sans exclaimed, and rushed down the stairs.

"- Thanks kiddo.-" Replied the eldest from the kitchen, he was currently fighting against the frying pan that decided to stick the eggs today of all days. 

The knocking came again not a second later, louder this time.

"- geez, I'm coming! What's the rush?-" Murmured Sans as he opened the door, and when he did, a pair of guards as big as the door itself eyeballed him. The cold air hit Papyrus in the face so he pulled the scarf up a bit.

"- Eeeh...heya? Can I help you?-" Asked Sans, a bit wary if anything.

"- HELLO!!-" Exclaimed Papyrus, and waved at them with a big smile across his face. The guards melted at the sight but only a bit.

"- Sans? Who is it?-" Asked Gaster as he stepped out of the kitchen with the frying-pan still in hand. Sans shrugged his shoulders as he looked back at his older brother. 

The guards squared up upon the sight of him. The first one spoke loud and clear.

"- We came to seize doctor D.W Gaster under King's orders. We recommend you to come with us quietly until questioning.-"

Sans flinched, Gaster's eye sockets went black.

"- Wait. Seize him?! Like...prison seize or...-" Sans asked, because he couldn't believe it, he placed his hand behind Papyrus for comfort, as if protecting him from this situation would do any good.

"- What the heck is going on? What am I accused of?-" Gaster demanded, still the frying pan in hand just in case. Sans listened quietly, he was curious to know too.

"- We were only requested to seize you for questioning by king Asgore, he wants to speak to you urgently.-" The second guard said.

"- But why? We have to undertake a very special project today, he was made very aware of...-"

"- All projects under your name were cancelled.-" The first one interrupted, freezing Gaster on the spot. _"- Cancelled?!-"_ He sputtered as if the world was ending right now. Sans froze, open-mouthed. His big chance of a promotion was thrown down the drain.

"-We were meant to free monster kind today! I have been planning for this moment for _years!_ -" Gaster exclaimed, anger slowly simmering.

"- I'm sorry Doctor, but we must seize you at once. King Asgore may decide your fate. I don't know what you did wrong, but I have never seen him so angry.-"

Without saying anything else about the matter, both guards entered and grabbed Gaster by the arms, one on each side. Sans stepped out of their way and picked up Papyrus, his younger brother being his only comfort now.

"- W-wait! But what about our freedom!? -" Sans yelled, concern painted his features. Both of his eyes glowed blue. His brother was being seized right before his eyes and he couldn't stop it.

The guards only looked at both boys in pity before they left without a word.

"- BROTHER?! WHERE ARE YOU GOING?-" Papyrus called, extending his hand forwards.

"- Shhh, It's alright paps. The king just wants to speak to him.-" Sans soothed, but he hated lying. Making promises he couldn't keep is the worst kind of punishment.

"- Sans! Take care of your brother until I come back! I won't take long! I promise!-" Gaster yelled, and the door closed behind them. From inside, Sans could still hear him complaining along with their footsteps fading. He held onto his younger brother that clung onto him just as strongly.

"- I did NOTHING wrong! I swear!-"

Sans wanted to believe that more than anything. He truly did.

***

The royal scientist stood in front of his king who looked more than displeased, golden flowers surrounded them in the throne room, that smell was nauseating. Gaster never had seen such rage on his face before, and he was there when they fought the war against humanity and lost. His relationship with the king had always been good, why now, all of a sudden?

"- Sire, to what to I owe the pleasure of this... _seizing?_ Especially today of all days.-"

Asgore growled like a dragon, nearly breathed fire like one too. He took a step forwards the scientist. So small, so skinny... Gaster looked absolutely clueless.

"- You don't know why I called you here? As smart as you are, and yet you lack to find the _reason_ why I _cancelled your project to imprision you for the rest of your days?!_ -" He roared, his voice echoed within the throne room.

Gaster started shaking. His bones rattled. Asgore exhaled a sigh after a couple seconds of silence, that fear cannot in any way be fake, he's known Gaster long enough to know his every quirk, and when his eyes turn purple that means he's very much scared.

"- My human child, Chara...Did you experiment on them without consent?-" He demanded, but made it sound like a question for the sake of courtesy. Gaster played with his fingers behind his back so the king couldn't see him signing swear words, he stayed silent.

Upon seeing no reaction, the king took from his pocket some papers that he handed to the scientist. Gaster silently grabbed them and read them over, he skimmed through the pages with his mouth open. He wrote this, yes, but it was translated to near perfection and the skeleton did not know how could this happen. Only Sans could've done something like this.

Nobody else understood wingdings but Sans and himself.

"- T-that's confidential information. I d-don't know how you...-"

"- Yes or no doctor.-" Asgore insisted, the papers now on his paw. A faint red glow dimmed on his eyes. Determination: the power to do anything. On monsters is a rare sight, boss monsters however can be an exception to a certain extent.

Still shaking, Gaster closed his eyes and looked down to avoid that piercing stare. All he could see was yellow, yellow flowers everywhere. God, he hated them.

"- Yes, my king.-"

Asgore sighed and turned his back at him. He set the papers on fire right before Gaster's eyes, embers and dust fell upon the flowers. A king would never harm one of his own, but he was very, very disappointed that monster kind had resolved to this. 

"- Then we are done here. If you shall bring harm to others because you cannot differentiate a _priority_ from a _possibility_ then you cannot work under my name any longer. You shall be seized in a special cell on waterfall until I find out a proper punishment, I don't want you _anywhere_ near my children.-"

And with that said, Gaster was escorted to waterfall while drowning in shame. Not a word he said on his defence, because he had none. Confidential information got leaked to the king and Gaster has no idea who did it, but if he's smart enough to know one thing, is that the culprit wishes to stay underground for the rest of history. The culprit is one that speaks wingdings and was able to log on in his computer, not only that, but they knew what he had done months ago!

The question was who. Who could do such a thing against him? And why today?

"- I can't believe from all monsters, it would be you the one to use this old cell.-" Said Gerson as he opened the door for him, two guards stayed outside to guard him. Gaster froze before stepping inside. The room was completely empty, there wasn't even a chair for him to sit in and think.

"- Don't tell a word of this to Grillby please, I've got enough on my plate as it is.-" He pleaded under his breath. Gerson just huffed. It was shameful to seize one of his old veteran buddies to jail, but it must be bad if Asgore ordered it.

"- Too late sonny! He came by this very morning with Sans, they asked me if I knew what cell would you be placed in. Apparently they wanted to visit you, though I'll have to tell them that's not allowed here.-"

Gaster sighed. Of course. To make things worse, now the news were spreading all over the underground! Just what he wanted, more people to know his name and his failure to free them all that now rested upon his hands.

***

Sans knew the situation was bad when he was told his brother wasn't held in the usual cells but on a completely separate room in waterfall. Isolated. He had no idea what happened, but he deeply believed his brother to be innocent. His cool, smart, awesome big brother.

Gaster couldn't be in jail right now. Not today. Today they were meant to be free.

Sans ran as fast as he could towards waterfall, he ran past Temmie village, he ran over the bridge, only he was stopped when a blue spear came in flying from absolutely nowhere and it was directed straight at him.

 **"-LOOKOUT!-"** A voice yelled, but it was too late. Sans was pierced by said spear. He wasn't too good at dodging on his teenage years.  
_**-20 HP!**_  
 _"-Oof!-"_ He exclaimed, and fell backwards.

"- Sorry! I missed the practise dummy but I wasn't aiming at you! I swear!-" Exclaimed a young fish monster about his age if not a little bit older. She was wearing rookie armour, but the heavy kind, and yet with all that weight on her, she came running at an incredible speed.

"- Heya Undyne, what a way to break the ice huh? You got me hooked.-" Sans chuckled, ignoring the fact that he had a blue spear going inside his torso. Undyne stopped before him, she didn't know wether to call help or help him get up.

"- You good? -" She asked, slightly cringing at the sight.

"- Yeah, no biggie. Look.-" Replied sans, and un-pierced himself easily. Because he's hollow, the only damage he received was a slight crack on the ribs but he has to admit the spear came too close to his soul for comfort.

"- Wow. Skeletons are tough stuff! If I wasn't wearing armour I could prick my other eye out!-" Undyne exclaimed while showing off her new eyepatch. She held a fishy hand for Sans to grab onto and he did so without hesitating.

"- When did _that_ happen?-" He asked, and grunted a bit upon standing up. He sucked at healing but he could so something to make it stop throbbing at least.

"- Training. It's tough to be a guard. Where were you running off to by the way? Are you doing crimes?-" Undyne questioned with a goofy smile on her face, she knew Sans since he was a babybones, Sans would never do something like that but it was worth a shot.

"- Nah, the opposite actually. Two guards came to seize my innocent big brother for no f*cking reason this morning. -" He spat under his breath. Undyne tilted her head sideways a bit, her ponytail hung behind her.

"- The... royal scientist guy?-" 

"- Yeah. We had something like REALLY important to do today, I need to free him. Explaining to the king will come later, I'm supposed to keep this under wraps.-" 

Undyne puffed up her chest a bit after raising up an eyebrow. Freeing seized monsters is not what she had in mind today, she could loose her promotion for that.

"- Can't do. That does against the _guard code_!-" She exclaimed.

Sans sighed, he spoke in whispers in case the echo flowers decided to repeat something they shouldn't.

"- Alright, look...I know I am not supposed to say too loud but hear me out.-"

Undyne took a step back as Sans took it forwards. "- You want to bribe me? I think I'm supposed to stop you right now.-" 

"- No. It's... _ugh_.. we were meant to free monster kind today.-"

The words "free" and "monster kind" in the same sentence are the magic words Undyne needed to hear to forget all about the guard's code. She gasped, loudly. Sans wouldn't lie about this, he's a scientist too. How unfair it is, that the one who is doing good ends up locked in a cell despite being innocent, that can't be. Justice must always prevail!

 _"- THEN WHAT THE HELL ARE WE WAITING FOR?! COME ON!-"_ She yelled, and summoned a blue spear before she started running like a spartan, but in the other direction. Sans froze.

"- Undyne that's the wrong way!-" He yelled.

"- WHAT?!-" Undyne exclaimed, she stopped. Sans pointed forwards, but in the direction he was going to.

"- He's in an isolated cell in waterfall!-" 

"- OH. That's new.-" She grumbled.

Undyne ran his way, Sans was quick to catch up and they took off to rescue the scientist. From the distance, hiding in the shadows was a hoodied skeleton who saw the whole thing and huffed under his breath. 

_"- Maybe I should have warned myself.-"_ He thought, feeling regret seep through his bones.

Determination gleamed in Undyne's eyes as she localised the lonely door and two guards guarding it, one on each side. 

**"- HYYYAAAAHHH-"** Undyne screamed her war cry, and started throwing spears at the guards that went into battle mode upon seeing two pissed off teens running their way.

"- What are you doing?! You are supposed to be training!-" Exclaimed the first guard towards the rookie. Even with that heavy armour, Undyne was strong enough to hold them off pretty well.

**"- I AM TRAINING! IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE AND FREEDOM!-"**

With the guards distracted, Sans quickly opened the grey door to see his brother sitting in the corner of the grey room that had absolutely nothing on it. He was hugging his knees.

"- Gaster!-"

The older skeleton looked up to him in shock. 

"- Sans?-" 

Sans held his hand towards him. "- Come on! _Get up_!-"

"- W-what are you doing? What is going on?-" 

Apparently, the grey room is completely sound-proof so he only realised Undyne was outside fighting when the door opened and Sans walked in. Blue spears could be seen flying left and right.

"- I'm freeing you, dumbass! We are going to free everyone! Now, come on!-"

The eldest took his hand with tears prickling his eye sockets and they both left the grey room, leaving Undyne behind to cover for them. This is the most fun she's had in years.

"- You are going to be punished too, Sans. We never got to test the machine.-" The eldest exclaimed as they ran through waterfall, splashing water and stepping on echo-flowers.

"- The machine will work because I thought it, you made it, and we make the perfect team. I can't leave you rotting on a cell you hear me?! I told you when I grew up I would be just like you, I _promised_! This _has_ to work!-" Sans replied, he ran behind him to cover his back in case any guards came after them.

Sometimes, Gaster didn't feel like he deserved his siblings. This is one of those times.

The lab was empty when they arrived of course. Because the project was "cancelled" by the king, every member of the science team stayed at home until further questioning so turning on the machine and freeing monster kind would be a two skeleton job.

They had to rush, Undyne alone would not be able to stop every single guard going after them.

"- Sans, go to calibrate the core stabilisers, they are in the next room.-" Ordered Gaster as he placed on his iconic lab coat and walked towards the machinery. He started pressing buttons and tapping on the keyboard, many numbers came up on the screen. 

"- You got it.-" Replied Sans, but froze before walking out of the core room. "- Which setting?-"

"- The highest.-" The eldest snapped without taking his eyes off the screen. If his maths weren't off, they had a window of 3.5 seconds. Too close for comfort, but that's something.

Gaster turned on the big machinery as big as the core itself, the mechanisms whirred and twisted and turned, a very loud noise started ringing, smoke came from absolutely everywhere and the pressure was such that the railings popped off from their hinges. Too many numbers on the screen started going crazy. Red. Everything turned red and the floor shook below his feet. Lava bubbled.

Somebody teleported behind him, his right eye glowed blue under the hoodie.

 **"- Don't press that button.-"** A voice said, a familiar one too. Gaster turned around in shock, he was sure Sans was calibrating the stabilisers, the numbers were moving! 

Sans took off his hoodie to see his brother in the eye. Did he come here too late? He didn't want to meet with himself so he had to wait until himself walked out of the room to come in.

Too many truths hit Gaster in the face at once. His eye sockets went black.

**"Sans the skeleton"**   
**ATK 1 DEF 1 HP 1**   
**He can only deal 1 damage.**

"- You are...not my Sans.-" He murmured, his hands shaking.

"- Sorry to cut the party short G-man, but this will explode in less than a minute. Stay away from that control panel or I'll have to use the force.-" 

So the culprit was Sans after all, the one who leaked the confidential information to the king.

"- B-but you are here, I don't understand... does that mean it worked? You travelled here. Why would you...-"

At that very same moment, Sans, his younger self, walked into the room, he was coughing and already dirty with oil and grease. He interrupted in the worst moment.

"- The stabilisers won't hold for much long.....er.-" He froze mid-statement. Both skeletons stared at one another. Sans from the alternate future swore under his breath.  


And now he made a loop. Great.

**"Sans the skeleton"**   
**ATK 20 DEF 20 HP 480/500**   
**Royal scientist apprentice.**

"- What..?-" That's all that the younger Sans could say before he was pierced by blue bones, so if he stayed still and didn't say a word, nothing but happen to him, the problem is that he refused to stand still.

"- Don't make me repeat myself again Gaster, I know what you did.-" Sans growled, but Gaster replied by placing his finger right on top of the button.

"- My brother is innocent! _UGH!_ -"  
_**-10HP**_  
"- He did nothing!-"

**-15HP**

"- Your brother _experimented_ on the human kid, that's why the king was so pissed.-" Sans announced for his younger self to hear, his eye sockets went black as he stared at Gaster in the eyes, the windows to the soul. As a judge, he did not like the numbers he saw on him one bit.

**Gaster the skeleton**   
**ATK 50 DEF 65 HP 600/600**   
**EXP 245 LV 7 KR 100**   
**The Royal scientist**

To say that Gaster was mad is probably the understatement of the century.

"- Look. I don't know what happened to you, I don't know who you are and I don't care who gets hurt in the process of our freedom, but I can't NOT try! THIS IS FOR THE GREATER GOOD SANS!-"

The slightest hint of determination painted his purplish eyes before he slammed his entire fist against the button and the machine rumbled even louder. The alarms started blaring. An electric shock forced Gaster to bring his fist to himself with an audible "ow!" That only took from him 2 HP.

**_"- Countdown for teleportation in 5..."_ **

"- _The greater good_ you say?-" Sans repeated in a near whisper, his smile froze. 

"- Leave my big brother alone! _AAGH!_ -" The younger Sans still fought against the blue bones, but every time he moved or spoke they pierced him.  
 **-25 HP**

"- You don't understand... I... I had no choice!-" Gaster stammered, he dislikes being under pressure more than anything. The expression he was seeing on Sans now is one he never wanted to see. Ever.

**4...**

"- And here I thought I was the greatest good you were ever going to get.-" Sans murmured towards his brother, his face was a mixture of sadness, disappointment and anger, but mostly pain, both physical and emotional. Tears stared appearing on his eye sockets and his smile faltered, his right eye turned bright blue. He looked at his younger self, fighting to protect the name of his big brother despite being pierced by blue bones... such a shame. He was so innocent, so hopeful. He loved his brother so very much but Gaster could never see his priorities straight in the eyes. Even now, Sans could've killed himself with bones and Gaster still _chose_ to press that goddamned button. 

**3...**

Sans turned his younger self blue with a very shaky hand, his HP was lowering. Before Gaster could react, Sans sent his younger self flying straight to the core like he did to the kid during a genocide run, but instead of slamming him against the wall, he simply threw him. That'll teach Gaster what Sans has felt all these years. Now it was his turn to suffer.

**2...**

**"-SANS!-"** Yelled Gaster, eyes fully purple. The elder skeleton ran to save him, ignoring the Sans that placed on his blue hoodie so nobody would see him crying. _" -get dunked on.-"_ He whispered, smiling. He was always smiling. 

**1...**

The core exploded. 

Gaster remembers seeing his brother being engulfed by white light, then black. Gaster was hit in the face with such a blast that even as he woke up, his skull still throbbed. Two big cracks he sported on his face, and his left eye was completely blind.

He huffed and groaned. He did not want to see his stats right now but they could not be good. Pieces of bone rested on the floor before him and they became dust before he could piece his skull back together.

Sans was gone. Or better said, both Sanses disappeared in thin air. He was alone, sprawled on the floor. His SOUL started aching, he was absolutely drained, exhausted, and he had no idea why. God, he felt like he was dusting right there! he could hardly keep himself together. Gaster couldn't save him, his brother. He didn't reach there in time.

Gaster was alone, but not for long. Footsteps filled the corridors. Guards filled every single room.

"- There he is! Seize him!-"

Gaster gasped, still immobile on the ground. He can't get caught. Escape, he has to escape! Move! Come on! Do something! Where is your determination?! If Sans could make the machine work, why couldn't you?! What did you do wrong?! What number did you miss?!

 **"- AAAARGH!-"** He screamed with his eyes closed. Magic flowed through him and it hurt like hell, exactly what radiation damage feels like. 

Before any guard could grasp him, he was gone. Gaster teleported before their very eyes as if he were some sort of glitch in reality that wasn't meant to be.


	5. To make things right

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flowey needs to chill

In the lab behind Sans's and Papyrus's old home, papers and blueprints were scattered everywhere. The door was wide open and from it came a soft breeze of freezing air that welcomed Frisk when they stepped outside the machine that opened all by itself with a _"KSHHHHHH"_ sound. They were exhausted, slight coughing escaped their chest. 

Did they succeed? 

"- S-sans? Where are you?-" They called out, but nobody came. The lab was empty.

 _"- If the plan failed and Sans died again... where is his dust?-"_ Thought Frisk with pity as they eyeballed at the ground, but there was not a trace that Sans was ever here, not alive or dead.

Frisk remembered Flowey was still tangled around their arm, but strangely enough, he had not said a word. The flower was quiet. Too quiet. Maybe he was unconscious?

"- Flowey?-" 

Flowey did not react. Normally, two eyes a mouth and a nose would be in the white head of the flower, but this golden flower was completely devoid of life and determination. It had no face, it was just a flower.

Frisk gasped. Flowey was dead. The machine sucked all the determination that kept him alive out of him and sent it along with Sans to a place that's NOT here as long as Frisk is concerned.

"- No...Flowey...-" Frisk whined, and petted their golden petals softly. Thankfully, sadness doesn't last very long when one has the power of **determination** on their side.

"- Don't worry, I will RESET right now. I will make everything right!-" Exclaimed Frisk, and held a hand forwards. 

Nothing happened. No buttons appeared in thin air like they normally did. Their soul glowed red, yes, but nothing happened. Weren't they determined enough?

"- W-what? Why can't I...-" They stammered. 

Frisk tried again. Their teeth clamped together this time. "- _Nnggggggggg_.-" 

Nothing.

"- It can't be. This can't be happening!-" They exclaimed, crystal tears already glassing their eyes. Their voice echoed within the walls of the lab and escaped outside where the wind howled. With Flowey dead, they were completely alone down here, not a monster was in sight and this situation didn't bring exactly good memories. Now who had control over the timeline if not them? Who could possibly be more determined than Frisk?

Frisk cried, for they did not know.

They failed in the worst way possible, not only Sans was dead but Frisk felt responsible for it, and to top it all off Flowey was dead too.

Frisk dared to check their STATS... Yes, just like they thought. They LV had increased by... _none?_ They were still a completely pacifist soul. How?

Frisk blinked. Now they were VERY confused. So... if Sans is not dead, and neither is Flowey, where the heck are they? Flowey is right here but he's dead! He's dead isn't he? 

Too many thoughts filled Frisk's mind, too many emotions, and not enough determination.

If the only two beings that know about timelines and determination have disappeared, Frisk was unsure who to go to for advice about this. What could they do to explain Sans's disappearance? How would they explain it? Sans didn't die, he's just...not here with them. No. That sounds worse. Way worse. It would be easier to say he dusted himself by accident, but that sounds bad too.

Frisk could not RESET. The more they repeated that to themselves, the more their shook in place.

By instinct, they grabbed their cellphone and dialled their mother's number. Frisk begged for somebody, anybody, to pick them up from this hell but they were sobbing so much that Toriel had to ask them to repeat themselves a couple of times. Toriel reassured them to not move from Snowdin because Undyne and Papyrus would come as fast as they can, and the moment she asked why wasn't Sans with them, Frisk hung up. 

Frisk decided to give the bad news when everybody is listening, they don't even know where to begin with this. Who could remember someone who erased himself from existence, and at the same time understood Sans enough to know why he did this?

Like a flash, memories of yesterday night came flooding Frisk's memory in Sans's voice. The flavour of chocolate filled their tongue and a name rolled out the same way one would uncoil a chocolate wrapping scrunched into a ball.

"-Grillby.-" They muttered. He's the only monster who could understand, chances are slim but if anybody here would be willing to listen, that would be him. Maybe the fire elemental bartender has more than good food to offer, and Frisk had absolutely no idea if what Sans speculated may be true or not, but it was worth a try.

Trying was all they could do for now but without RESET there was no room to screw things up, they promised themselves they had to make things right again, no matter what.

***

Flowey woke up between a familiar bed of yellow flowers. The first thing he did was look around curiously, and when he situated himself in the ruins, the flower sighed in relief.

"- **HAH!** I knew that stupid trashbag machine wouldn't work! -" Flowey exclaimed to himself with a big smile on his tiny flowery face, he was very sure that Frisk RESET, so sure, that Flowey waited as always for them to fall down and say the usual.

The problem being, that Frisk didn't. Flowey waited and waited, bathed by sunlight, but nobody came. 

"- What's taking them so GOD-DANG long?!-" His tiny voice echoed in the ruins. Flowey started getting angry and impatient after the first half an hour or so, but no more than two hours later he was _bored_ , and everybody knows being bored is the worst state of mind one can be.

At some point, Flowey got tired of waiting and decided to do some exploring, but the ruins were slightly...off, to put it simple. Flowey couldn't get what was wrong, but his petals were tingling strangely since he woke up and he didn't know why. Some traps were missing, some monsters were not in their usual places, those were just tiny and small details that ticked him off. 

Where is Toriel? Normally Flowey would enjoy the sound of her mother humming to herself as she watered the flowers and practically owned the place, but it seems there was no trace of her. The ruins lacked the smell of butterscotch and cinnamon pie. 

Not long after Flowey realised Toriel was missing from the ruins all together he knew this was not a regular RESET. 

The real shock came to Flowey when he heard voices, familiar voices, and they came from behind the big tree where he used to play with Chara when he was alive. And speaking of the devil, there he was. Asriel and Chara, lying side by side in the large bed of yellow flowers, chatting like nothing ever happened. If Flowey had lungs, his breath would've escaped him right there and then upon seeing them. 

"- We shouldn't be here Chara, mom will be mad if she knows you escaped from your room.-" Asriel whined towards his sibling who currently played with a tiny yellow flower by pulling out all it's small petals as if playing the game "loves me, loves me not"

"- I know, I know, but I wanted a break from all the pampering of mom and dad. I'm fine! I swear!-" Chara exclaimed, throwing the tiny yellow flower into the air. A couple of petals fell on top of their head and stayed there.

"- You were experimented on! That is not okay!-"

"- Humans did worse to me and they never heard me complaining.-" Chara huffed under their breath.

Although the experience of extracting Determination was unpleasant, Gaster did treat them to food and healed them afterwards, things that humanity didn't do. Bullies laughed and left them bleeding to die without a care in the world and without a reason. At least Gaster had his reasons, which Chara agreed with, they wanted to free monster kind no matter what, and because they failed to make the machine work with their determination alone, disappointment made them cranky.  
Heck, even what down in the underground is catalogued as "evil" is "more than good enough" in Chara's perspective. In fact, they were angry they couldn't make it work, they didn't agree with Gaster being jailed for Asgore knows how long. They wanted to TRY again.

Asriel furrowed his small nose. "- Why? It's okay to ask for help.-"

"- Not to humans. They use weakness against anybody! And to make it worse, they sometimes do it for fun. They are cruel.-" Chara replied as serious as they could be.

Asriel took a few seconds to sink in that information. It was amusing how could a human like Chara hate their own species so much. Asriel never heard a single good thing come from humanity from monster-kind either, but still, there had to be at least one that's worth of redemption right? A true pacifist soul. At that moment, Asriel wondered if he could ever meet one like that someday.

"- Are all humans cruel and evil?-" Asked Asriel while softly petting the closest flower to him instead of picking it and destroying it like Chara was now doing. 

"- From first to last.-" The human replied without hesitating.

"- Not you. You are good.-" Said Asriel not a second later. The kindness in his eyes and his voice brought a smile to Chara's face. A true smile.

 _" You are so precious I would die for you, I would die for monster kind to be free."_ They wished to say aloud, but kept it to themselves. Vengeance on humanity can wait.

"- And you..are a crybaby.-" Chara said in a joking matter, and booped Asriel's nose. He chuckled.

Behind the tree, on the other side stood Flowey, hiding and listening to the whole thing in silence, he blended well with the rest of golden flowers. For being a creature unable to feel anything, Flowey's eyes started dripping so much he had to close them. His stem shook. He gritted his teeth even, he did _everything_ in his power to avoid sobbing out loud.

"- Are you sure you don't want to go home yet? Mom and dad will worry about you.-" 

Chara sighed and turned so they would be lying in the bed of flowers while looking at the ceiling instead of looking at Asriel and his distracting fluffy ears.

"- Well, maybe I want them to stop doing that...the worrying bit. Is there something we can do to...I dunno...distract them from overprotecting me?-" 

Asriel hesitated for a couple of seconds. Chara is clearly not used to love, their parents have been acting a bit differently towards them since they received the news, more supportive. It's very probable that they imagine pain and suffering for their child when the truth is that Chara hardly remembers it anymore, they are traumatised from humanity enough.

"- We could bake a surprise cake for dad to cheer him up! Mom's pies are the best.-" Exclaimed Asriel with glee, a big smile crossed his goat features. 

Would baking a cake work to bribe Asgore to free Gaster out of jail so Chara could try to make the machine work again and free monster kind once and for all? 

"- Mmmhm A cake?-" They hesitated. Would that be enough? Is that all the could do for monster kind?

"- Yeah! Without mom's help of course. We are old enough to bake without her watching over us anymore.-"

"- You are just hungry for cake are you?-" They huffed with a a soft smile. Asriel blushed a bit.

"- Hehe...maybe.-" 

"- Mmhm you know what? That sounds fun. Let's go and bake a cake.-" 

Flowey left before being spotted as both children stood up from the bed of flowers, but Chara stayed behind. They looked suspiciously to the place where Flowey had once been. Asriel noticed the human wasn't following them and froze, he walked back and took their hand softly to shake them from trance.

"- Chara?-"

Chara flinched. Hand-holding is starting to become a habit, one that's hard getting used to.

"- Ah- I think I saw something for a moment, but It's nothing. Come on.-" They said, and walked along with Asriel back home while holding hands.

So the machine DID work and they travelled to the past of all places. The smiley trashbag actually got his numbers right for once! Flowey could hardly believe it.

Flowey escaped to Snowdin, the cold and snow helped to retain all the fluids in their flowery body but it took a while for these "feelings" to fade away. This time, it lasted more than four seconds. Breathing heavily, Flowey started thinking of a plan that became a "wonderful idea" the more he talked to himself out loud now that nobody was watching. Flowey was very used to being by himself. No matter the ending, Flowey always stays behind no matter what.

"- If I can change what happened in the past then Chara won't have to die and I won't become... _THIS._ To hell with bringing that IDIOT back to the surface so the smiley trashbag can have his stupid happy ending! It's MY turn to have a happy ending! This is going to be MY happy ending! **HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA** -"

Flowey's maniac laughter was interrupted by the sound of somebody teleporting behind him. Flowey froze with the evil smile still frozen to their face, believing it was Sans who found them because he's the only one who can teleport across time and space that way by taking "shortcuts". 

Right when the flower turned around to congratulate the "smiley trashbag" for the free ticket to "second chance land" he found himself facing with the wrong skeleton. The "idiot" as Flowey would like to say. 

At first flowey was very surprised. So the roles have been reversed now? if it's Gaster the one who can teleport and he's still exists then where is Sans? Did he...

The smile on Flowey's face couldn't grow any wider when Flowey came to the conclusion of what happened. The flower gasped. No way! The smiley trashbag really erased himself from existance to save him! That's perfect! Sans was his only barrier to ever doing what he wanted! Without a judge, his way to a happy ending would be as easy as killing Gaster with friendliness pellets, but to be honest, after what he did, Flowey had _much more_ than friendliness pellets to offer him. Flowey never gave a damn what Sans wanted, with both skeletons gone forever the timeline is all his, it's not like Gaster will live for long on the condition he's in.

Flowey will enjoy torturing him until his last breath, and when he's is done playing for revenge, he will do anything in his power to avoid Chara from dying so he can have his happy ending for once in his life. Finally he's the one in control. It's his time to shine!

Flowey laughed, and laughed, and laughed... 

Gaster was in complete shock, his only available eye glowed purple and slowly turned to white as he groaned face-first against the snow. The cool sensation of the frozen snow helped to stop the throbbing of the cracks on his face, but he shook like a leaf and could not in any way get up from where he was. Gaster knew he was very hurt, his HP kept getting lower and lower by the second but his numbers had been increased in ways he didn't know were possible. His STATS went absolutely crazy. 

**"W.D Gaster"**

**AT 66666 DF 66666 HP 210/66666**

**✋︎ 💧︎☟︎⚐︎🕆︎☹︎👎︎ ☠︎⚐︎❄︎ 👌︎☜︎ ☟︎☜︎☼︎☜︎**

_"- What happened? How can I be in Snowdin? I was at the other side of the underground just a second ago!-"_ He thought to himself, and grunted loudly as he attempted to at least be on his knees instead of being a literal bone carpet sprawled on the floor. His SOUL ached, it was a dull throb that did not go away.

"- Howdy!-" Exclaimed Flowey, smiling at him from petal to petal like he usually did when Frisk RESET and it was time to start over.

Gaster blinked and stared straight at the Flowe's eyes with his only eye available, he was confused. A talking flower? What is a flower doing in Snowdin? Is he a monster? Can flowers be monsters? Gaster tried to check flowey's STATS but the flower surprisingly had none. Flowey had no SOUL so there were no stats to see, nothing but pure determination injected into a flower who was bathed with the dust of failed hopes a very long time ago, but where he is now, it has not happened _yet_.

"- Who...or what, are you?-" 

"- I'm Flowey. Flowey the flower!-" He exclaimed, and shot him his iconic wink. Flowey even stuck out his tongue a bit for comedic effect.This felt like meeting Sans for the first time as Flowey, oh, they had such a blast together! Flowey had never seen so many gaster blasters pointed at him at once. So much fun!

The first time Flowey and Sans met it was during one of his many resets, when Flowey was in control of the timeline and had the power to RESET at will. To be honest, he and Sans never started in the right foot, which is why there was so much hate between them. At first flowey tried to be good with everyone, but then he got tired and attempted suicide, and to his surprise the woke up at the same bed of flowers! He couldn't die!

With the power to RESET everything, Flowey realised he could do whatever he wanted, and things got even _better_ when he realised Sans was the _only one_ who remembered past timelines and RESETS, that gave the him enough motivation to physiologically torture the skeleton in a never-ending duel that kept repeating on loop.

Flowey killed Papyrus for fun, he killed everyone Sans loved... but he never got to kill the smiley trashbag. Not once. Sans always got his revenge and forced them to RESET. That kept going on and on until Frisk fell of course. The kid took control of the timeline the moment they appeared and that was the end of it for Flowey. No more fun. No happy ending. No more fighting agaisnt Sans, the judge. 

No more judge. Sans didn't exist here, and if that isn't the perfect world for Flowey then he'd be dammed not to take this golden opportunity to make things right. Maybe he wasn't able to kill Sans, but Gaster here is begging for it! 

What a shame that cycle of hate between the flower and the skeleton must continue, even if we are talking about a completely different skeleton. Sans cannot in any way be compared to Gaster who was as clueless as he could be, an easy prey to put it simple. Flowey felt lucky that Sans ended up erasing himself out of his way, as if saying _"your turn to be happy, weed. I've done my part. Do whatever you want. I give up."_

That's what Flowey took this opportunity as, as the chance to do whatever he wanted, and everybody knows the intentions of a souless flower powered by the determination of his deceased sibling can't be good.

Gaster felt his sins crawling down his back. If he knew how he ended up here he would teleport right now as far away from this golden talking flower as possible but he had not gotten the hang of "shortcuts" yet. 

All he could do now was wait and hope this flower doesn't mean any harm. He's got enough guards on his trail already.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for some Gaster suffering on the next chapter! Flowey likes his revenge served cold.


	6. Vengeance for the fallen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The loop continues, both worlds connect and intercept in a pointless, endless cycle.  
> Now things start making sense huh?

A very tense silence loomed over the empty forest of Snowdin. Some snow that stuck on the branches above slipped down and fell between them, thus marking the line between the past and the future.

"- I've never seen you before. Did you travel too? Like Sans?-" Inquired the scientist. Flowey's smirk widened.

"- Ooh, so you ARE as smart as the smiley trashbag said. How did you know?-" Asked Flowey as he tilted his head forwards, his eyes glittered with curiosity.

"- I have a feeling you don't belong here.-" Huffed Gaster under his breath, a bit angry that this flower dared to insult Sans before him. That was the switch that ticked him off, with all truths uncovered there was no need to keep up with the "adorable flower" facade, the smile on Flowey's face twisted in evil ways. Long vines with red spikes sprouted from the ground.

"- Well neither do YOU! -" The flower yelled, and made his first move, careful not to kill him yet. He wanted to make Gaster's dead a slow and painful one.

To the scientist's surprise, Flowey stood the skeleton up to his feet by vines that acted like strings and Gaster became the puppet. Because he's hollow, the vines travelled inside his clothing and clung to his ribs and bones, they intertwined inside every single crevice and left Gaster completely immobile and suspended in mid-air. He was already weakened and hurt, but simply being forced to stand took out of him 2HP more. He whined, the surroundings dimmed to grey, he couldn't breathe. The pain was nearly unbearable, his upside down white soul glowed inside his chest in intervals. His right eye turned slightly purplish.

Flowey's vines stopped right before they reached his SOUL. 

_"-Not yet. Soon.-"_ Flowey thought. 

"- I could SO EASILY break you SOUL in half right now, but I won't. That would be too easy. I wanted to play with you a little bit first. It's been so long since I had proper fun!-"

Gaster tried to use magic to defend himself despite being completely exhausted, but the moment Flowey saw the slightest tinge of blue in his hands, two extra vines as sharp as knives came from below the ground and pierced both of his hands right across the centre. Bone pieces were sent flying and dusted in mid-air.

 **-75HP**

Gaster screamed. Not only he was half blinded with two ugly cracks on his face but now he couldn't do magic because two enormous vines pierced his palms that also started cracking around the edges. Gaster couldn't even summon bones or a sad blaster, he had to admit he had better days, the humans at war were more merciful than this flower, who, by the way, smiled to himself proudly upon seeing his handwork.

"- _Ah, aah, aaah._ No blue magic. You know I hate it, or better said, Sans did. He used it to spite me.-" 

Even after recovering his breath for a couple of seconds, Gaster was groaning and shaking in place. His screams were music to Flowey's ears, and everybody knows flowers grow stronger when they hear music they like. The pain brought the worst out of Gaster who yelled at Flowey with so much anger and desperation that a slight tinge of red discoloured his already purple eye. The other one remained black. **"- WHY?!-"** His roar echoed in the snowy forest. Flowey froze for a second, surprised to see that Gaster is a boss monster too by what it seems.

"- Why _what?_ -"

"- Why do you hate me SO MUCH?! And Sans... why he...-"

**-10HP**

Flowey tugged the vines towards him and the skeleton puppet shushed, Flowey's face was inches away fom his cracked skull. Pain. Gaster was in so much pain everywhere that he could hardly recognise the original source anymore. The only thing that kept him from falling unconscious was adrenaline and shock, but Gaster wished he could fall asleep right now and wake up in bed, hearing the bickering between his younger siblings.

This had to be a nightmare for sure. Nothing made sense. Why a flower of all things?

"- I don't CARE ok? Whatever he did, _I...don't..care._ He's gone forever anyways, erased from existence! Nobody will remember him, like what happened to YOU in my world.-" 

Gaster's SOUL nearly popped out of his chest upon hearing that. "- _WhAt_?-"

Flowey ignored his reaction, he huffed in a mixture of disbelief and relief yet the smile was plastered to his face.

"-I can't believe his great idea to "save you" was to take your place. Boo f*cking hoo.-" 

Gaster mouthed the words "Save me" to himself. But, that didn't make any sense! Sans threw himself into the core right before his eyes! How is that saving him? How is bringing a flower demon with a vendetta towards skeletons saving him? It's doing the opposite really.

"- Anyways. Now that I finally meet you for real and the smiley trashbag isn't here to stop me, I am going kill you because, hey, guess what? I am ALIVE because of you and I will make you suffer every second of my pitiful existance!-"

Gaster started discorporating from reality at some point during Flowey's speech, that is one of his many copying mechanisms with stress given the fact that he can't physically do anything to escape. Sans's last words echoed in his mind on loop, they were engraved there like cracks on his skull. Is Sans gone forever? Isn't there a way to bring him back? What has he done? How can this flower-demon-thing exist because of him?

Flowey froze a bit when crystal tears rolled down his cheekbones. This wasn't as fun anymore, not even Papyrus cried when Flowey killed him, and his death wasn't exactly a quick one. Flowey hated crybabies more than anything, he tightened his vines to at least make him stop shaking so much.

**-10HP**  
_"-Ugh!-"_

"- OH you are SOOO confused are you? Unlike your brother, you are missing that smug smile of his that pumps me up so much. Much like Papyrus, you are only smart when it's convenient to you. How many times do you have to be remembered what you've done until you ACTUALLY get it?-"

Gaster's breathing quickened as if he were having a panic attack. "- I-Is it the D.T extractions I did to the human?!-" He exclaimed. Flowey's smile widened once again and he loosened his vines a tiny bit to give Gaster fake hopes.

"- Correct! You are getting better at this.-" 

"- I...I don't understand. I don't understand ANYTHING! -" He yelped, still feeling the vines squeeze his chest and practically every single bone on his body. He was a puppet. A literal puppet. His pierced hands were the worst of all this, being half blind with a scarred face he could manage but being unable to do magic forever...now that's cruel.

"- Now, now... before you die, let's get on the same track. Let me tell you a story so you can calm down a little, alright?-" The flower chirped with fake empathy. One of his many vines started travelling up his neck and curled itself around it like a choker.

Flowey couldn't decide whether to behead him like he did to Papyrus, or pierce his soul and allow him to slowly dust. It would all depend on his reaction to the story.

"- Once upon a time, monster kind was trapped underground and an IDIOT decided to take all the credit to himself by torturing an _innocent_ soul! But the story doesn't end there no... Just like you, I was alive and I had a _sibling_ too! I loved them very, _very_ much. But sadly one day they died and that's YOUR fault, I DIED and it's YOUR fault as well. I shouldn't even exist, yet here we are! And that's all thanks to YOU. When I'm done with you, I will make everything right and you better hope we don't meet each other _eeeeever_ again. The end!-"

The expression on Gaster's broken face is one Flowey enjoyed. That anger, that tinge of red inside the purple, the way his mouth hung... That's a very good reaction. Despite being minutes away from death, his super-doted mind noticed what was going on. His subconscious knew the truth.

"- Who...the f*ck...are you?-"

Flowey smiled. Swearing is much, much better than any pun Sans could offer, and better than all the second chances Papyrus always gave him with his arms open. Gaster truly is the smartest monster in the underground. He deserved to know the truth, and Flowey gave it to him, in the most monster-like voice he could muster.

**"-A S R I E L D R E E M U R -"**

Life seemed to slip away from him. Gaster squirmed. "- no... _no...that can't be. NO-AAAAARGH!_ -"

Flowey started choking him, he tightened every single vine and strangled the literal life out of him. Flowey was planning to break every single bone on his body, and a skeleton has 207 so that's a lot of work to do.

**-5HP**  


**-10HP**  


**-13HP**

**"- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-"**

A fireball hit Flowey right in the center of his face and interrupted his laughter.

Flowey expected that to be Toriel, but a very familiar bartender with glasses is what came to his friend's rescue. Grillby was fuming, he was preparing more fireballs to throw at him even at this long distance and he would never miss. He was a sharp-shooter in his old days for a reason. Flowey wouldn't rule out his chances to be burned a second time so he retracted all his vines and let go of his broken skeleton puppet that was nothing but a shaking, mumbling mess. The golden flower retreated underground with an angry growl, scowling. He would never win against a fire elemental, but Gaster was already doing tightrope over the line between life and death so that's good enough. His work here was done. With revenge served, now it was time to make things right. 

Gaster fell to the ground but luckily the snow cushioned his fall. He believes he heard a voice calling for him but now he can't remember. Everything turned dark.

Darker

Yet darker...and... _green_? Isn't the light at the end of the tunnel supposed to be white?

Gaster realised he was still alive because he heard his SOUL beating loudly. He tried to move but couldn't, pain seeped every inch of his body. Despite being made of just bones he felt as if those were made out of lead, especially his skull that was drumming and throbbing so much he could hardly open his eyes. He lost count of how many bones were cracked, while Flowey was strangling him to death he was in and out of consciousness but now that the flower is gone Gaster had no idea for long he was out, a very soothing warmth had taken over his body, and when he finally opened his eye he nearly gasped. 

A blurry image of someone familiar kneeling before him nearly brought tears of happiness to his eyes. It had been so long since Grillby's flames had been green that seeing him now like this seemed a dream, a mere memory of the past, of the war they left behind. Obviously this isn't the first time Gaster saw himself like this, hurt and sprawled on the ground, near death. His fiery friend always came to his aid. Always. Between screaming and blood and dust, his light at the end of the tunnel had always been green and warm. Gaster being the only monster his flames don't burn because he has no skin or flesh made their friendship permanent. 

"- Hey Grillby... you are... _green_ now. Heh.-" He mumbled between heavy breathing, and allowed a pained chuckle to escape. The fire elemental sighed in relief and stared at his only working eye that dimmed from purple to white, though he did not stop trying to stabilise him, his STATS didn't look normal. Gaster was in a mixture of "falling down" and something else Grillby had never seen before. The damage he'd recieved on his hands and skull was permanent, those were lousy news enough, but the rest could be fixed. Grillby decided he would not stop healing until his HP stopped decreasing.

"- What was that?-" He asked while he carefully held Gaster's pierced hands in his to envelop them in his green flames. The skeleton hissed.

"- A real monster. One I created in...another world...it seems. I have to stop it.-" 

"- So your project...did it work?-" Asked Grillby, amused because it didn't make sense that Asgore send him to an isolated jail in waterfall if he did everything right. What could have Gaster done to enrage Asgore like this? 

"- I don't know. I really don't know anymore. I have to stop it. _I have to stop him, I have to stop him_...-" Gaster's voice dimmed to whimpers, and judging by the state of him and the way he repeated that, Grillby could say he was confused to the next level. Gaster was not alright but his HP froze so that was good enough. 

Grillby's flames slowly changed from green to yellow and they dimmed back to the usual orangy red. 

"- Why did you escape?-" 

"- Sans set me free, and after the core exploded the guards broke down the doors and came in but I...blinked...and I was here.-"

Grillby allowed a couple seconds to pass in order to sink in that information. "- You... _blinked_. And you appeared here? All the way from your lab in Hotland?-"

"- Yes.-"

That did not make any sense. Nothing he said made sense, and Grillby knew the skeleton since the literal war beween humans and monsters took place to know that he was not lying. Gaster was really smart, sometimes too smart for his own good to make up stories like these.

"- W-who set you free again?-" Grillby inquired. Gaster flinched. **"- Sans.-"** He repeated, as serious as he could be. 

"- I'm sorry, Sans? Sans who?-" Grillby's flames flickered and Gaster's only working eye turned purple again. His breathing ragged. Was the flower right all along? Did his brother really erase himself from existence never to be remembered again? That couldn't be. Flowey couldn't be right. 

"- S-Sans. My brother.-" He begged, tears nearly dwelled on his eye-sockets.

Grillby hummed. Gaster did hit his head very hard, thus the cracks. No wonder he's confused, the question here is, how much memory has he lost?

"- You only have one brother. _Papyrus_.-" Grillby corrected, but Gaster only shook his head. He tried to sit up on the snow, his back bones pulled him.

"- I have **two** brothers! Sans _and_ Papyrus! And I promoted Sans to king Asgore as my trainee so he could be the next in line to be the next royal scientist.-"

Grillby inhaled, he spoke slowly and clearly, steady not to startle him too much with what he was about to say next.

"- Gaster, you promoted Alphys as your trainee. I don't know if you remember but you came to my bar's opening yesterday with Papyrus and you presented her to me. You have been training her for months now, she's very smart and...-"

 _"- I don't know any monster by that name!-"_ He interrupted in a panic, and Grillby froze for a couple of seconds. He never felt so much pity for his old friend. Not even war scarred him like this.

"- Gaster...I...-"

"- Grillby. No. Listen to me. Take out your phone and check it, Sans called you this morning! Gerson told me you two wanted to visit me.-" He ordered, and he looked so determined, so sure of himself, that Grillby gave him the benefit of the doubt. He still had hope.

Grillby sighed but did as told, he took out his phone from his pocket and tapped the keys. He checked it once...and twice. 

"- None. No calls whatsoever.-" 

Gaster's only working eye dimmed to black. His pierced hands shook. Grillby handed his phone to him, just so he could see for himself, but that seemed to make things worse.

"- That can't be...Sans can't be...no... _nonononononono_.-" Before Gaster could squeeze the battery out of his phone, Grillby grabbed his hands to stop him and took his phone back. Gaster was checking his contact list, and he had already tapped the letters "S" and "A" before Grillby decided he'd seen enough. He wouldn't allow Gaster to torture himself any longer.

"- Calm down. You can take refuge on my bar until you clear you head out if you want, I won't allow the guards take you back like this. You are not alright, Gaster.-"

His voice was reassuring but his words weren't. 

"- I can't put you in trouble, I have to stop him! The flower...that thing is going for the prince! No...wait..the prince...The prince is...-"

Gaster did not dare to finish that sentence, he entered into full panic all by himself while holding his broken skull with his pierced hands, his only working eye had never been so purple. If what the flower said was all true then he had to do something about the D.T he extracted from Chara, he had to erase ALL his work and leave no evidence behind, thus no way for Flowey to exist if he really is the culprit of this nonesense. He wished he had never woken up from bed today. Really.

"- What about the prince?! Gaster...Hey, _answer me_!-" Grillby shook him slightly, he didn't want to hurt him but he really was not making any sense at all. Gaster froze, his only working eye turned on again and looked straight at him. Grillby may be made of literal fire, but just by looking at his body language you could tell he was worried and concerned.

"- Gaster?-" He asked again, softly. His two hands held his shoulders.

"- I have to stop him.-" That's all Gaster was able to murmur before footsteps on the snow appeared in the distance. More guards, dog sentries, basically an entire group made up of at least ten monsters started running at their direction. Gaster and Grillby were running out of time.

No words that the fire elemental could say convinced the guards not to seize Gaster right there and then because his word is obviously less than the king, and despite Gaster was very hurt, that doesn't mean he's less in trouble. Especially after escaping once only to fail and explode half of the core. The ex-royal scientist of course begged over and over to be left alone because "he had to stop the prince" and "the flower was after the children" but he sounded so borderline psychotic that the guards stood him up by force and started carrying him away, believing he had lost his mind completely. Gaster tried to squirm away.

_"-We fought together, we killed together! You have to believe me Grillby! I have to stop this! GRILLBY!-"_

The fire elemental just stood there. He wanted to believe him, he truly did.

 **"- Take care of Papyrus for me.-"** He begged with his eyes, and the fire elemental seemed to understand that. He gave Gaster a slow nod. Papyrus didn't deserve to suffer, that is something both were in agreement with.

The skeleton closed his eyes again and screamed in frustration and impotence. Right before everybody's eyes, Gaster teleported again, and this time he took the two guards that seized him along through the "shortcut". 

Time seemed to freeze. Grillby stood, open-mouthed, every sentry stared at loss at the empty space where Gaster and the two guards once stood just now.

"- I told ya he blinked out when we got him! You owe me money!-" A guard exclaimed to another while the rest of sentries rubbed the back of their heads, shrugged their shoulders and huffed in frustration. One even groaned. Now where would they have gone to? 

Grillby was amiss, he had never seen something like it.

***

Gaster and both guards that held him appeared inside the true lab, right before the big machine that Gaster used to extract the Determination from Chara. The place was creepy enough by itself, but the fact that the lights were off and only the sound of ventilators filled the silence made it worse.

 _"- What in the name of Asgore...?!-"_ One exclaimed, the other simply froze and looked around, completely astonished. Gaster tried to squirm himself out of their grasp, it's a shame he can't do magic anymore, he would blast this entire room to smithereens.

"- What kind of magic is that!? Where is this place?-" 

Gaster grumbled. He did not want to teleport with these two loons, he's catching up fast with learning how to "shortcut". Rule number one, you can teleport with someone if you cling onto them.

"- Here is where I apparently created my biggest mistake. Release me for a moment. That's all I need.-" He pleaded.

"- I can't release you! You will blink out again and end up somewhere else!-" 

Gaster had enough. 

"- I AM FALLING DOWN AND KING ASGORE NEEDS ME ALIVE! PLEASE! JUST CHECK MY STATS!-"

The guard did, reluctantly so. 

"- What the hell...-" He muttered. Gaster may be acting mad, but he was definitely not lying about that. 

"- The machine gave me radiation damage to my SOUL and the only cure is in those flasks right there. Allow me to demonstrate. _Please_.-" He heaved and acted as if he were dusting. The truth is, Gaster had no idea how to cure the radiation, or what would happen to him if he injected himself with ALL the determination he extracted from Chara, but if there is one thing he had clear is that he must take responsibility for his actions. He must pay the price for his mistakes. That flower won't be created if he does this, thanks to this Sans is gone, Asgore has dishonoured him because of this...

Gaster had no choice, he already lost everything. His job, his brother, his sanity, his life... Finally he learned what his priorities were, _the hard way_. He decided he would get rid of every ounce of Determination he extracted so far. If anybody here shall pay, that's him. This all that he can do for now to make it better.

The guards looked at each other and then stared at the flasks filled with very questionable red glowing liquid. They were absolutely clueless.

"- If you've got any nasty trick under your sleeve I swear to Asgore...-"

"- **LOOK AT ME.** I can't even use my magic! Let me heal myself and then I'll show you the way out. -" He pleaded, and showed them both his hands that were still shaking. Two big holes pierced the centre of each palm. One of the guards hissed at the sight. Gaster wasn't in a good shape, little did the guards know that he would loose that too on the way back.

"- Fine.-"


	7. A determined SOUL

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We all make poor life choices at some point, but some are unlucky enough to have none.

Asgore had fallen sick. The king of monster kind, the strongest between the strong, the one who monsters quivered with a single look of his... and he was accidentally poisoned by his very own children. Asriel of course, being the crybaby that he is, clung to his father's hand and refused to leave his bedside where he rested, heaving and coughing. Asriel could not stop sobbing. The sight was heartbreaking to say the least.

 _"- But the book said it was four buttercups, not cups of butter!-"_ Chara exclaimed on their defence at first, they shook but they did not cry. Crying is for the weak. 

Chara felt guilty, yes, but it was hard to show it. Why wasn't Toriel angry? A human would've kicked the hell out of them, a human would've... Chara did not want to think about it. They believed they did not deserve forgiveness for what they've done, so instead of staying with Asgore by Asriel's side they wandered around the home, looking for distractions.

They overheard a distant conversation and couldn't avoid coming closer to listen. Peeking behind a wall the human saw their mother and two guards covered in a strange black grime from head to toe. One was doing the talking, the other simply stood next to him vividly upset.

"- Please, your majesty! We must speak with the king, it's urgent!-"

Toriel squared up towards the guards, her chest puffed. The golden crown shimmered against the faint sunlight.

"- Do you intend to say I don't share the same authority as him!? He is very sick! He cannot speak with anybody right now!-" She roared, but the desperation in the guard's faces only grew.

"- But it's an emergency and we don't know what to do! This has never happened before!-" He exclaimed, and Toriel huffed a bit.

"- What happened? Explain everything to me.-" She ordered sternly. The guard stammered because he had no idea where to start, but when he did, he couldn't bring himself to stop.

"- The royal scientist...Gaster...he...he started melting on our arms like a nice cream!-"

Toriel's eyebrows knitted. "- _Melting_ you say?-" 

The guard, a dog monster by the way, was so scared upon the thought that his tail quivered between his legs. His armour was a mess.

"- W-well, first he started disappearing for no reason. One second he was right there, and then he was...gone. Somewhere else.We had to run up and down the underground looking for him because he disappeared before our very eyes! And then we disappeared with him!-"

The dog guard looked at his companion for support, but the other was so shaken he could only nod.  
Toriel raised a very suspicious eyebrow, before she could even open her mouth, the guard continued and he got more and more exasperated by the second.

"-A-a-and when we were finally able to seize him we were magically teleported into a strange lab and he said he had radiation because half of the core exploded and...-"

"- Please.-" She interrupted, her expression was so serious the guards were unsure if she believed them, but then, her face softened. She slowly placed a paw on the guard's shoulder.

_"- Breathe.-"_

The guard did. 

"- What happened. In fewer words please.-" She pleaded, and watched the expression on the guard's face deepen into guilt. How could he be so naive as to let the crazy scientist do what he wanted? Was Gaster just playing with them all along?

"- Gaster has injected in his SOUL something called **Determination** and it gave him strange powers.-"

Toriel and Chara gasped in unison, but after the shock subdued a big creepy smile appeared on the human's lips. "Strange powers" he said? How very interesting. Would those powers maybe help to break the barrier? Chara knows what their SOUL is. A plan already formed in their head just from hearing that. 

"- He's...something else now. I don't know what the hell is he, but he's not a monster anymore.-" The guard continued, and watched how the queen's expression changed into deep concern. Toriel may not know what Determination is, but as queen, she knows this power cannot escape to the wrong ears. 

"- Where is he right now?-" She asked without hesitation.

"- Inside an isolated cell in waterfall, like king Asgore ordered. As you can see, we had to carry him there.-" The guard replied while showing off his grimy armour.

"- Mmhmm.-"

"- Your majesty, I plead for you help. Gaster's condition is something not even our best healer was able to help with! No monster can understand a word he's saying! He can't even speak a language anymore, he makes these...strange sounds and gibberish!-"

"- Is he falling down?-" She asked, now with a tinge of pity painting her words.

"- He WAS but he keeps himself together somehow. His SOUL is perfectly intact but his STATS and this...-" The guard took some black grime from his armour with his paw and showed it to the queen. "-This is Gaster. _I'm covered in Gaster!_ -"

"- Don't touch me with that!-" Toriel barked, taking a step back from both guards. She now realised she had touched his shoulder before so she wiped her paw clean with her sleeves, but it still remained dirty. The black substance was strangely sticky, she had the need to wash her hands in the sink, and to wash the floor too. The guards were dripping this black goop everywhere and it didn't help the fact that they were dogs, a simple shake and Toriel would fire them on the spot.

"- Sorry.-" The guard whined the same way a kicked puppy would. He felt miserable enough.

The queen huffed, she already felt uncomfortable with her current situation to add even more trouble into the mix, and from the monster who experimented on her child no less. It's not like Toriel felt any sympathy for him, in fact, she believed Gaster deserved it, but the fact that he made this to himself was more than strange. Asgore had a lot of trust on this monster, too much on her opinion.

"- Keep him isolated and closed to the eyes of absolutely everybody. Don't let word of this spread, I will make sure to tell Asgore your report as soon as he heals. If his condition changes come to me straight away.-"

"- T-thank you your majesty.-" 

The guards left and so did Toriel. Never had Chara seen her mother run faster to the closest sink. Toriel didn't even realise they had been eavesdropping on the conversation. Chara, of course being the curious child they are, walked towards the drops of black goop on the floor and inspected it. It smelled strangely like... _flowers_.

"Interesting" Like Gaster would say. He influenced Chara a lot.

Their smile widened. They had the perfect plan now.

***

Asriel did not like the plan at all. It took hours of convincing, and yet the prince refused. Gaster didn't take half as long to convince Chara, but even when saying the same words, Asriel would not budge.

"- It's our only chance we've got Asriel! Don't be a crybaby! If I share my soul of determination with yours we are going to be unstoppable! We can free everyone!-" 

Asriel's paws intertwined with one another. He looked to the side to avoid that gaze, that strange red tinge on their eyes, but especially the creepy smile. To be honest, Asriel was sometimes scared of Chara. 

"- Isn't there another way?-"

"- No there isn't. Gaster's project didn't work and now I know why. Determination doesn't work on _machines_ Asriel, it works in SOULS. Monster SOULS. And what are you?!-" They insisted.

Asriel opened his mouth, but a different voice came replied from behind Chara's back.

"- Howdy!-"

Chara turned around in a flash to look at the golden flower that smiled at both children. One of his petals was slightly burned, but other than that he looked as happy as he could be. This is it, this is the same thing Chara saw before. A flower with two dead eyes as black as beads.

They didn't have a good feeling about the flower. For some reason, they automatically hated it. Something told them this flower should not be here. Asriel on the other hand took this golden opportunity to change the topic of conversation to a better one, he stepped forwards and waved. So naive. Chara didn't move, they stared at him suspiciously.

"- H-hello? Who are you?-" Asriel greeted, a bit shy even.

"- I'm **Flowey**. Flowey the flower!-" Flowey chirped.

"- What are you doing here?!-" Chara snapped angrily, both the flower and Asriel stared at the human with a similar expression, but Asriel's was more...alive. He was confused. Flowey was simply shocked. Ah...now he gets it, Determination has memories, and because Flowey is made of their determination Chara repels him like two magnets facing each other with the same pole.

Just because they come from different world doesn't mean the determination isn't the same one, afterall one is the past and the other is the future. Chara doesn't conciously know what Flowey is yet, but their SOUL does and that's more than enough. A SOUL that can feel is a dangerous thing, but a determined SOUL? Oh, where to start.

"- Chara, what's wrong?-" Asriel whined, but Chara stepped forwards to protect him and stood between them both. 

"- I don't have a good feeling about this, step away from it. Now.-" They barked, pushing Asriel back. 

Flowey chuckled. How adorable the sight of Chara protecting their crybaby sibling. That nearly made him feel something for a second or two.

"- Oh pLEAse! I'm not here to hurt you. I couldn't help but overhear the conversation you were having and I decided to pop in and give you some friendly advice!-"

"- We don't _need_ advice. -" 

Flowey's facade faltered for a moment. It was getting harder and harder to smile now.

"- Your plan is going kill you both you **IDIOT**! Do you want to die a gruesome, painful death?!-"

Chara flinched. Ariel covered his mouth with his paws and gasped behind them.

"- And who are you to tell me what I can or can't do? **When were you the one in control?** -"

There was no mistaking it. That red glimmer in their eyes, that SOUL... Chara had complete control over the timeline, in this world and in the other one. They took a step forwards followed by another one and another one.

Flowey froze in fear. That smile... those words... had he heard them before? Why was he feeling deja-vu from this? Why was he feeling fear? 

"- C-chara wait... _wait please...please don't kill me._ -" Tears came out all by themselves and watered his black beady eyes. Asriel watched, dumbstruck, as their human sibling chuckled to themselves. Asriel knew Chara was using the creepy smile for sure, no monster could resist shaking in their feet when they saw it. Flowey was shook he didn't think about escaping.

The human grabbed Flowey by the stem and pulled him out of the ground, he shook. Due to the lack of knife to cut him to pieces, Chara opened their mouth to continue as planned. 

"- **CHARA DON'T EAT ME YOU ARE GOING TO DIE!! PLEASE DON'T EAT ME!! CHARAA!** -" Flowey begged and squirmed inside their hand, but Chara did not hesitate. Tears dripped from his face now, Flowey wanted to go home, they were supposed to stop Chara from poisoning themselves but he ended up becoming that very same poison. Flowey was going to get eaten alive! Karma, as Sans would say, is a real bummer. Where is the smiley trashbag when you _need_ him? 

"- You are going to die?-" Asked Asriel behind their back. Tears also glassed his green eyes.

Chara froze and closed their mouth, they were stuck between two crybabies. Urgh. 

"- That was my plan from the very beginning! I am going to give my SOUL to you, but for that to happen, my body has to perish first. It's easy as cake.-" They chuckled, minding the unintended pun about the poisoned cake.

The lack of self-preservation wasn't even the real shock for Asriel. Flowey didn't say a word, he simply shook. He can't believe his crybaby good-for-nothing self just saved himself.

"- But I don't want you to die! You will be very sick like dad and...-" 

"- I don't see any other way to be on the surface.-" Chara interrupted before Asriel could start whining. 

"- THERE IS A WAY!-" Yelled flowey, interrupting both. "- There's a world where the barrier is broken and everybody is happy and free! I come from there! I swear! I can bring you there!-" 

Flowey was just inches away from Chara's face as he begged for his dear life. We are not talking about "the future" anymore, this "past" has been altered to such a state that we are talking about a completely different world the one that Flowey wants to go back to.

Chara's smile got wider. "- Oh yeah? Then tell me, what do I have to do to go to your world.-"

That was not a question.

"- Chara!-" Called Asriel. "-You are going to get us in trouble.-"

Flowey gulped and he doesn't even know how he did so because he lacks saliva. He had to choose whether to ignore himself or lie to Chara who was currently planning to eat him and die. The choice was an easy one, only a true idiot would try to manipulate the one who controls the timeline. Chara is the most determinated human in both worlds right now.

Flowey wanted to make things right. So he will. He won't allow Chara to die. Not again.

"- The idiot skeleton, Gaster, he was right. The machine works, but not the one he used when he experimented with you, he made another one, smaller, and it's inside his home in Snowdin. He has a lab there.-" Flowey confessed, still shaking inside Chara's hand that gripped him tight.

"- And that one will not explode?-" Asked Chara as serious as they could be, flowey simply nodded. Chara hesitated for a couple of seconds.

"- If we go there and I see no machine I WILL eat you.-" 

"- Charaa!-" Asriel called out, again, but he was ignored. Flowey smiled. **"- Deal.-"**

And the deal was done. Flowey coiled itself around Chara's arm the way way he did with Frisk, and they were on their way with Asriel trailing behind them, reminding them constantly that Toriel would come looking for them and would freak out if she realised her children had gone missing. Never had Chara been so determined to free monster kind before, and now that they were finally going there, they were unstoppable.

***

Flowey was a professional lock-picking doors.

At first Chara was a bit sceptical that there would be a time machine in there, but they trusted Gaster, the only monster who came close to being as determined as they were to free monster kind. When Flowey's vines travelled under the door and opened it from the the inside, both children opened their mouths in awe. Asriel of course acting more shy and reserved, he hardly touched anything and looked around in fear if anything. 

The lab was small and filled with blueprints, a big sheet covered something big and bulky at the end of the room. Chara inspected some of the blueprints and chuckled to themselves.

"- What language do you think this is?-" They asked to Asriel that shrugged his shoulders.

"- Charaa I don't like this... I wanna go home, mom must be worried!-"

"- The machine is under that sheet.-" Said Flowey, and Chara didn't have to think twice to choose who to listen.

"- I just want to look at it okay? Then we can go home. Wait here.-" Chara replied, and Asriel nodded. He stayed put and Chara unveiled the machine with a quick _"whoosh"._ The white blanket sprawled on the floor.

"- Wow.-" They exclaimed with stars on their eyes. 

"- I don't know how it works, all I know is that Frisk and I stepped in there and I woke up here.-"

"- What's a _Frisk_?-" Asked Chara, without taking their eyes off the big machine that looked more like a see-through elevator, but it had the monster kind insignia on top. The one of the angel, the saviour. 

"- Frisk is the human that controls the timeline in my world.-" Or better said "controlled" because Flowey is very sure Chara is taking the lead now, but he can't speculate without making sure first.

"- What's a timeline?-" They asked, now looking at Flowey who softened upon seeing them so excited and happy and...alive. This is what Flowey always wanted.

"- A timeline is everything and anything, and with Determination you can control it.-" 

Chara's smile got wider. "- And how do I do that?-"

Flowey returned the smile.

"- If you are determined enough and you extend your hand forwards, two buttons can appear, and if they do, then it's aaaall yours! You can choose what to do with this world from now on. _The judge is gone forever so you might as well._ -" Flowey whispered that last bit to himself, at first he hated the smiley trashbag but now he has mixed feelings about Sans. 

Sans is very, very necessary. Who can judge the kid if they go overboard if not him?

Following Flowey's instructions, Chara extended their hand forwards in mid-air and their red SOUL glowed inside their chest, they were filled with determination! They took a deep breath and closed their eyes, everything went black but the two buttons that glowed red before them.

Flowey froze, his small mouth hung and so did Asriel's. Unlike Frisk, their buttons were not **"RESET"** and **"SAVE"** but the complete opposite.

Chara's only options were **"ERASE"** and **"DO NOT"**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That can't be good! Or can it?


	8. ❄︎☟︎☜︎  ✞︎⚐︎✋︎👎︎

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Translated title) The Void
> 
> Anybody wondered what happened to Sans? Or did you forget him too?

Dark

Darker

Yet Darker

The shadows cutting deeper...

**"- Sans.-"**

Sans opened his eyes, he wasn't dead. He was floating in nothingness. All he could see was dark all around him. The last thing he remembers is that impostor appearing out of nowhere, he bullied his big brother and then just...threw him! Like a piece of trash! Gaster was so close to grabbing his hand too, they were just inches away.

"- W-where the hell am I?-" He wondered to himself. He was alone. 

**"- The void.-"** Replied a voice behind him, and Sans turned around and screamed.

"- _AAAAAAAAAAAAAaaah! Demon!_ -"

At first Gaster screamed too, but when Sans pulled his hand forwards to do magic and nothing happened, Gaster simply stayed still with his hands up in defence while silently thanking the void Gods that magic doesn't work here. 

**"- Nonononono Sans, it's me! Gaster! Your brother!-"**

Sans froze. His eyes glowed blue but he could not do magic, so instead he tried to check his STATS but that wasn't available either so he simply looked at the goopy, broken mess of a monster before him. His smile faltered to one of discomfort the more he looked at him up and down.

"- You...are not...-"

 **"- The Gaster you remember. I know.-"** The other sighed. **"-But he is me as much as I am him. If you saw your brother right now, you wouldn't see a single difference between us.-"**

Sans chuckled, this had to be a joke, but it felt so real he couldn't avoid his broken voice to stammer. Being a teenager is hard.

"- S-so another impostor huh? First me and then my brother. -"

Gaster's expression saddened a bit, Sans was not understanding a single thing but he would allow him to let it all out first before explaining things bit by bit. 

"- You aren't even a good clone you know? at least the other me looked like, well, me. But you look...goopy? Is that even a word?-"

Gaster chuckled. Oh, Sans was so innocent back then...so pure. He was having fun just listening to him, the Sans that never lost his brother or lived the same day over and over just to fight a Flower that was bored as hell and wanted someone to judge him before Frisk fell and the rest is obvious. There was just no way to get him a happy ending wasn't it?

 **"- The "other you" as you call him, is also you. You are both Sans, and he dusted away when the machine exploded. He could only handle 1HP.-"** Gaster explained, and saw Sans flinch for a moment before he relaxed.

"- Oh. That's good. He was a jerk.-"

Gaster chuckled again.

**"- I'm sorry to burst your bubble Sans, but you are destined to be him, he is your future. He is you.-"**

"- HAha, _Nope_! No way I'm going to look like death passed over. Hell no.-" Sans exclaimed, but Gaster did not budge. His voice took a much darker tone as he spoke.

**"- I'm sorry Sans, but take my word, your world and mine are tied in a loop. I was the one supposed to be erased from existence, not you. The radiation damage from the explosion was meant to leave you scarred for life until you ultimately fell down. You were meant to survive it, not me, but here we are.-"**

Sans stood still for a couple seconds, absorbing that all information like a sponge until it finally clicked.

"- So...is that why the other me...?-"

**"- Yes Sans. The other you came from the future, my world, and tried to stop me, your brother, but he found out the truth.-"**

"- Yeah I heard it, you experimented on the human.-" Sans panned, to which Gasted nodded slowly.   
****

**"- I underestimated the consequences. You weren't meant to be forgotten Sans, I'm very, very sorry. I'm sorry for everything that happened to you.-"**

"- Stop apologising! Geez! I just came here okay? I am trying not to have a mental breakdown right now. All this "your world" and "my world" bullcrap is giving me a headache!-" Sans exclaimed as he placed his hands over his head, Gaster gave him a moment and also took a moment for himself to regain his composure. Once he starts apologising there is no stopping the train of guilt.

**"- Do you know how loops are formed, Sans?-"**

"- Eeehhh...No?-" Sans replied with an uncomfortable smile on his face, he didn't know how take all of this, all he wished is that he had never woken up this morning.

**"- When you meet yourself or try to stop yourself. That's how.-"**

"- Sweet. So not only I am a jerk but I'm also an idiot in the future, or your world, whatever you call it!-" 

**"- Sans...-"** Gaster called out calmly, knowing the teen was already starting to loose it.

"-And what else did you say about the radiation...the explosion thing...?-"

 **"- Radiation damage, it's terminal and has no cure.-"** He replied curtly, but left the answer vague because injecting determination could be called a cure if it didn't have side effects. Nobody wants Sans to live forever as an amalgamate, that's not a good quality of life.

"- So you are telling me that no matter what I do, my destiny was to fall down and dust away without ever seeing freedom!? All my life affords just went down the drain, would you look at that! I'm a mess in the making!-" 

Sans was starting to loose it. Gaster couldn't let it happen.

**"- No! You did everything right, Sans! In the end you did get to live in the surface for a while, you simply weren't meant to have a happy ending. Like me. We both made mistakes so don't call yourself names, you are better than that.-"**

"- Don't try to give me a motivational speech, G-man.-" Sans snapped.

Gaster flinched, he had not heard that name in years, nor he had seen Sans so upset.

"- In case you haven't noticed I'm really pissed off right now because if we are both gone from existence what about _Papyrus_? He's the best monster to ever step on this underground! He doesn't deserve to be alone! He's our brother too!-" He yelled, and watched how Gaster's expression softened.

**"- The Gaster from your world entrusted his care to Grillby, and because you are from the past then Papyrus will be Grillby's protegee in the future too, in my world. He's safe so you don't have to worry for him.-"**

Sans's expression softened too. "- Ah...Grillbs...-" He muttered. "- That's cool. If it's Grillbs then he'll be fine. Grillby is the closest thing to family we've got.-"

 **"- Indeed he is, that is something we can both agree with.-"** Replied Gaster with a smile, but it didn't take long for that smile to falter a bit. **"- Which leads me to tell you something else I always wanted to tell you.-"**

"- Yeah?-"

**"- The first machine ever made, the prototype you created... it's compatible with every power source you decide to feed it, at any amount, without the need for calibrators that explode grease all over you when you turn them.-"**

Sans chuckled a bit, he was still covered in grease. Unlike Gaster, he did not goop away, he remained in one piece apart from the hole on his shirt from Undyne's spear.

**"- Your prototype never explodes once. It seems not only I sub-estimated the core's power, but I also underestimated you. I should have improved your one instead of using it as template to create my own and take all the credit for myself. If we are insulting ourselves I might as well confess that I was an idiot and a jerk too.-"**

What flowey said to himself in the other world really cut deep within the arrogance and jealousy that he had in the past. Gaster still remembers when he found out Sans's idea worked to perfection, instead of admitting his brother's idea surpassed him in every single way, he called it a "prototype" and covered it with a literal sheet, hiding it from the world. He then created another one at a bigger scale and tried to make it work with determination, but when that failed he connected it to the core and the machine couldn't handle it. Karma erased him with a blast. 

"- Oh...uh..thanks. Really. But no. You are the best G-man I could ever ask for ya know? It's never about who's smarter or better, I always believed in you no matter what.-" 

Sans's teenager smile and the sincerity of his words broke him, Gaster was already melted to goop, but he did so more upon receiving that unconditional love and kindness. Sans just forgave him for everything, just like that.

 **"- I know you did. You are the...the...-"** Gaster sobbed, he could not in any way repeat his Sans's last words without crying right there. His unexistant throat tightened. Sans and Papurys were very much alike in terms of hope, but because Gaster disappeared and Sans is the only one who remembered, he was forced into a role too big for him and he suffered in silence. Gaster never felt so guilty, especially now that both worlds tied in a loop and he saw what would have happened to him if Sans took his place instead. It never ends does it? No matter how much they try, neither Sans or Gaster get to have a happy ending.

"- Stop with the waterworks! Geez you are gonna make me cry too.-" Sans exclaimed, and floated towards him to place a hand on his....shoulder? He didn't know. Gaster was too goopy and broken, he cleaned his only working eye with a pierced hand.

**"- Now that you are stuck here, there is enough time to cry. Nobody will hear you. Nobody remembers you in your world either.-"**

"- Yeah...about that... if I'm gone what the hell happened to MY brother? The...other you?-"  
 ****

**"- He became me. Because both worlds are connected, one fills the empty gaps with information from the other so they keep each other tied to perfection. It was expected that instead of you, it's Alphys the one fills your place as the next Royal scientist. Alphys "rescued" your brother from the isolated cell too, your existence has been replaced with hers so that means she's Undyne's best friend and thus her future girlfriend.-"**

Sans froze. It hurts like hell that a monster he doesn't even know has taken over his entire life _and_ his promotion _and_ his friends. He doesn't deserve this. He doesn't want this to end this way. He hasn't even said goodbye yet!

"- Okay. That's sweet. But who the heck is Alphys and why is my dream job taken over so quickly? Do you know how HARD I studied to get that promotion?! -" He yelled.

**"- I apologise about your promotion but it was never meant to be, Aphys is a monster that in my world took over me after I fell here. You don't know her yet, but my Sans did. You were close friends.-"**

Sans groaned and placed his hands over his face this time. Now his hands and sleeves were covered in grease. "- Please tell me Alphys won't screw things up.-" He pleaded.

**"- Not anymore after your brother in your world decided to inject all the determination extracted from the human to himself, thus making me the way I am. Alphys has been saved from "the screw up" list thanks to me, how interesting is that?-"**

"- Eehh...I'm still confused. My bro did what now? Which world is this again? This dark abyss that we are floating now?-" 

**"- Ah. This is the center-place, where both worlds are tied. This is "The Void" and you can see everything from here. We are the reasons why this loop exists and we stuck in here so call it a punishment if you will.-"**

"- A punishment huh? You know, I left Papyrus with the shop-keeper next door. He loves playing tag with the bunny-kids. Can I just pop into existence for a moment and...-"

If Gaster could bite his tongue until it bled he would, but couldn't. Despite being erased, Sans still cares for the littlest brother over _everything else_ , saying goodbye to Papyrus is all he wants and that just made Gaster's next words quiver.

**"- You have been forgotten Sans, erased from existence forever. You can see everything from here and travel anywhere you like but only for a couple of seconds, a minute maximum. Nobody can see you once you get out of here, and even if he did see you he doesn't remember who you are.-"**

Sans deflated towards the news and looked crestfallen. His white pupils dimmed.

"- Aw, did we screw up that bad?-" He whined, tears glassing his eye-sockets. He looked like he had _given up_. No. Gaster couldn't let that happen. 

**"- Not only us. There's more.-"** He muttered. Sans stared at him in amusement.

"-More screw-ups? Who? who?-"

**"- Asriel.-"**

Sans froze. He was confused. "- The PRINCE? What did the kid do? He's just a KID!-"

 **"- Sorry, I meant the Asriel from my world. It's a long story what happened to him, but he ended up travelling to your world with my Sans too.-"**

Sans crossed his arms.

"- Well go ahead bro, spit it, we've got all the time in the world. Being forgotten is not that bad when you think about it.-"

**"- Don't get too comfortable, as much as I enjoy your company this has to end.-"**

"- End what?-"

**"- This loop. Both humans stand at both ends of the spectrum with equally determined SOULS and they are fighting over the control of the timeline that is everything. One wants to save everybody no matter what, the other's only purpose is to erase it. They both exist thanks to all this time travel, and they are going to meet shortly here in this Void.-"**

"- Okayyy I'm not understanding anything but carry on. -" 

**"- When they come here, all of them, we have to convince Frisk to Erase the ones that have tied this endless loop. If they dare to RESET, this will start all over again. Some of us were never meant to have a happy ending and we have to make them understand that. We have to move on to avoid any more suffering. It's for the best.-"**

"- Alrighty then. So...care to tell me what that means? I'm still a bit behind _and_ I'm covered in grease, not a good first impression.-"

**"- Don't worry, you will see when they arrive, for now, I will start by telling you what happened to prince Asriel and the first human that fell so you understand what I mean. You are very, very behind. I have to explain everything to you.-"**

As much as Sans was pumped up for story-time, he had better things in mind he wanted to do, so the least he could do is ask.

"- Looks like this isn't the first time we speak. Have you tried this before?-"

**"- No, but I have seen what RESETS do to you and it's not...I don't want to see you suffering anymore Sans. That's all I ever wanted, more than freedom to monster kind. I have come to realise that family is my utmost priority. I will never forget that.-"**

"- You are the best, G-man. It's a shame though that I can't even say my goodbyes to Papyrus for a last time. Pat his head and maybe say a pun or two to watch him stomp his feet on the ground, maybe invite him to eat at Grillbs for a last time like we did yesterday...That would be a good way to go. Damn it. -"

Gaster hesitated as Sans cursed to himself, as he stared at his brother daydreaming his smile widened.

**"- Mmmh...I guess if it's just for a couple of seconds that can be arranged. I have someone I would like to say goodbye to as well. It appears I wasn't completely erased from everybody's memories either.-"**

"- _Really?!_ -" Sans exclaimed with stars on his eyes. His smile was a pure one, a true one, and it was so contagious that Gaster returned it.

**"- Maybe you have been forgotten in your world, but in mine Papyrus remains your brother, Undyne is still your friend and they are actually looking for you right now...The other you. Take this as the promotion you worked very hard for, it's the least I can give you after everything I've done.-"**

Gaster saw how Sans practically vibrated from excitement towards the news. He made a noise similar to a squeaky toy.

 **"- Do not be alarmed when you see them. I can assure you they are very grown up.-"**

Gaster wasn't expecting Sans to suddenly ram towards him with a hug, he didn't mind engraving himself in black goop either. A brother is a brother.

_"- THANK YOU!-"_

Gaster hugged him back after the shock subdued and he tried his best not to ugly sob before they blinked out of the void. Seeing Sans and Papyrus happy is what Gaster always wanted, and he finally made it, even if this Sans is the teenage version of him he's still Sans and he was happy. If everything went according to plan, Gaster would go without regrets.

Maybe they didn't screw up so bad after all, this is the worst and best timeline of all timelines. It is the first of it's kind, and hopefully, it shall be the last. They have only a couple of seconds to make it count.


	9. The fire elemental

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grillby is the best Godfather, veteran war buddy, guardian, sun replacement AND bartender to ever exist in the underground. 
> 
> Thank you for coming to my TED talk

It was always snowing in Snowdin, and because of that, when Sans had a day off he and Papyrus used to go and make snow-figures. Papyrus remembers clearly the red gloves that matched with his striped shirt and scarf, Sans used to dress him up when he was that small, he knew what colours he liked the most. Papyrus found the perfect place to make snow figures that morning, he jumped with excitement and pointed to the spot where he decided to spend the next hour or so doing his figure while his brother watched over him. 

When he was done, instead of going home, Sans congratulated his littlest brother for making such an awesome statue and stood up to his feet with a big grin. Both of his eyes glowed blue before the accident at the lab happened, or "an accident" is what Sans called it. Things were never the same since.

"- How much you bet I can finish my snow statue in less than a minute?-" He smirked. Stars were seen on Papyrus's little eyes until he started using blue magic on the snow to form it's shape without the effort to touch even it. He only moved his hands in mid air the blue magic did it's thing.

"- YOU ARE USING MAGIC! THAT'S CHEATING!-" Papyrus exclaimed while jumping up and down and stomping his feet, that's probably because he spends too much time with the bunny kids from the shop-keeper next door. Sans thinks that's a very adorable quirk he's taken from them.

"- No its _nooot_.-" Sans mocked while holding his laughter, he was giggling to himself while he "made" his snow statue in, indeed, less than a minute with magic alone. A very good statue too, it was a near replica of himself that pointed at Papyrus's statue with body language that screamed: "look at how awesome my brother's statue is".

Papyrus did not like one bit the little effort that Sans put in the makings of his statue. Sometimes when he used blue magic for things like this, Gaster used to call him "lazy bones". Who wouldn't call him that for using blue magic to spoon the coffee+cereal concoction in his mouth instead of using his hands? Papyrus became infuriated when both of his older brothers stayed awake all night "creating things" and the next day they used blue magic for absolutely everything. That's where he took keen of responsibility.

"- CHEATER! CHEATER! CHEATER!-" The littlest yelled, and rammed himself against Sans while hitting the air with his hands. His wool hat with two fluffy pom-poms on each side made him look like a baby bear instead of a rabbit, but either way he was adorable.

Sans chuckled. "- Aaaah alright, alright I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I give up now, yours is the coolest. Period.-"

"- NYEHEHE!-"

Papurys woke up groggily in his bed. Alone. The window was open, and from under the sheets he could hear the birds tweet and see the blue morning sky knowing that Sans was missing it. Memories of the recent dream still floated in his mind, his very own iconic laugh echoed back at him.

Sans disappeared yesterday. The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to start sobbing.

Papyrus missed his brother a lot, Sans is the only brother he's got after all. After Frisk called in desperation yesterday, he and Undyne picked them up but Papyrus stayed behind just in case Sans took a short-cut somewhere and got lost, which is impossible because he knows the underground like the back of his hand but Papyrus would never loose hope. Undyne brought Frisk home while Papyrus searched the ENTIRE underground up and down without a clue of his brother's whereabouts. Where could the lazy-bones have gone to? Why was his phone off?

At some point, instead of searching for him, he hates to admit it but he started looking for his dust given the fact that he has only 1HP. A single slip and it would be over. After hours of searching Papyrus went home with his hands empty, he was going to cook spaghetti but he didn't, he went straight to bed.

Today he woke up knowing that Sans was still missing. His brother is all he thought about when he walked down the stairs and saw both Undyne and Alphys chatting in the kitchen.

"- GOOD MORNING.-" He groaned while rubbing the back of his head, he had never woken up this late but yesterday he ended up exhausted running left and right, and this dream he had... he didn't want it to end

"- Morning Papyrus.-" Undyne saluted with a toast inside her mouth the way an anime character would do. Because of that, what Papyrus heard was "Mmrging Pfaphfyrush" but he understood it well enough.

"- M-morning!-" Exclaimed Alphys, she raised her hand up.

Papyrus was not hungry for cereal, he didn't even sit down.

"- WHAT DID THE HUMAN SAY ABOUT SANS YESTERDAY? I'M SORRY I WAS TOO UPSET AND TIRED TO BE HERE WITH YOU ALL.-" He croaked with an apologetic expression.

"- Don't worry, you didn't miss anything important. Frisk said he suddenly "had to do something real quick" and took a shortcut but he never came back. Toriel is soo pissed off!-" Explained Undyne after practically gulping down the toast, and because of her obvious lack of tact, Alphys had to improvise. The lizard monster gently tugged her girlfriend's shirt to get her attention.

"- U-undyne...I d-don't think that's...-"

Undyne stared down at her girlfriend with confusion painting her fishy expression before she stared back at Papyrus who look broken. She was quick to catch up.

"- Sorry! I mean, We are all hoping he blinks back from wherever he's gone to. Care to umm...go back to the underground and search for him? I called the entire canine squad to help.-"

The skeleton's expression lightened a bit, but he was missing that shine on his eyes, that excitement on his voice. Everything that made him awesome was just...gone.

"- THANK YOU. WOULD A SOCK WORK TO TRACK HIS SCENT?-" 

"- I don't think that's necessary. I just told them to follow the smell of ketchup and everybody knows what that smells like.-" 

"- MMHM-" Papyrus hesitated, he looked crestfallen. If he had cheeks, he would've puffed them.

"- I-if y-you want to bring a p-piece of his clothing y-you can.-" Muttered Alphys with a kindred tone, but Papyrus only nodded his head.

"- I ONLY HAVE A SOCK. SANS HAS NO OTHER CLOTHES OTHER THAN THE ONES HE WAS WEARING.-" He whined.  
Undyne nearly sprung from her chair. Sans is very lucky he's made of bones instead of flesh, but some days the smell was such that it's hard to believe all of that came from just the clothes alone.

"- You are kidding me! He never changes clothes?! He never showers?!-" She yelled. Her stern voice echoed in the entire kitchen. As a leader and somebody with common sense, Undyne couldn't cope with knowing that someone so close to her had no sense of hygene at all. As a literal fish monster that she is, while living and sleeping with a lizard no less, she has to change every single day and it already became a routine for her and Alphys. Sans has is so much easier and yet he can't even do that?

"- U-undyne...-" Alphys once again tried to catch her attention. Papyrus was so heartbroken he didn't need somebody speaking crap his missing brother first thing in the morning.

Two chocolate wrappings had been abandoned at the top of the table two days ago and nobody dared to touch them. Papyrus focused on those instead of looking at Undyne in the eyes to avoid crying in front of her. He had to be strong! he is the GREAT papyrus!

"- PLEASE JUST HELP ME FIND HIM! THEN WE CAN ALL SCOLD HIM TOGETHER OK?-" He pleaded, tears glassed his eye-sockets.  
Undyne knew she overdid it and her expression softened. She held Alphys's hand as if apologising to her and also thanking her for being the sensible one.

"- Yeah...let's do that.-"

***

Grillby's restaurant was emptier than usual. Most of his clientele were dogs and they all travelled down Mt Ebbot this morning to look for Sans along with Undyne and Papyrus. Frisk felt absolutely horrible about it, all this search operation altogether. They knew nobody would find him but it was worse telling everybody he was dead, so this morning after they woke up they asked Toriel if they were allowed to go to Grillby's "to get something for Sans because he will be hungry when he comes back" and now there they were, seating at the same stool he fell down in the last RESET. 

Grillby placed down the empty shot-glass. This is his fourth one so far, but on his defence, nobody that's 100% sober could believe what Frisk was telling and actually make some sense out of it.

"- So you are telling me _*hic*_ that Sans teleported himself to the Void...-"

Frisk nodded.

"- A place where you go to when your existence has been removed and nobody ever remembers you again because some accident happened or some s*hit...-"

Frisk nodded again. Grillby filled himself another shot of rum and Vodka as he spoke.

"- AND he travelled there with a strange machine to get his brother back and the entire science squad that got sucked by the void.-" 

"-Uh-hu.-" Frisk nodded again. Grillby drank that shot too. In one go no less.

"- And that _*hic*_ accident... gave him radiation damage and strange teleporting powers so he was going to die either way but his brother must know how to find a cure, so that's why you two went there and he is now missing.-"

"- Yes. And his brother's name is Gaster. W.D Gaster.-" Frisk repeated for the umpteenth time.

Grillby was pouring himself another shot as he spoke. He chuckled to himself because he was half drunk and at the same time not enough drunk to believe what he just said.

"- I have no idea who that is. Sans must've been hallucinating when he thought I could...-"

Grillby froze mid sentence. His shot glass overflowed and spilled on the counter. He blinked as if he had been shot, his mouth hung open. He kept on pouring.

"- Wait a minute. _W...D..._ -"

Grillby kept pouring until Frisk quickly grabbed the fire elemental by his sleeve to make him stop wasting good alcohol. When he looked down he freaked, his flames peaked.

"- Oh s*it! Wait. No. Sorry. Don't tell your mother I said that.-"

Frisk smiled as Grillby flinched back. That's enough drinks for today. If what Frisk said it's true, he needs to stop acting as if Sans died. He needs to keep it together.

"- So you do remember Gaster!-" They exclaimed, to which Grillby sighed because he was very unsure. He started cleaning the counter and mumbling. That's some good alcohol that got wasted.

"- Well...yes...but...no. It's complicated. It's a feeling of deja-vu, but not quite. It's very strange.-"

Frisk saddened, which forced Grillby to continue in hopes to cheer them up.

"- Although I don't remember him, I sometimes have this repetitive dream about the war between humans and monsters. It's not even bad, it's weird because I remember I was fighting with somebody I was very close friends with, but every time I wake up he's gone from my mind but now that I know his name I feel at bliss. Thank you Frisk.-"

"- Your welcome, but I think the bliss is because you had too many shots.-" 

Grillby chuckled.

"- Ah no, because I'm made of fire alcohol evaporates quickly inside of me before it makes an effect. The maximum I can be drunk is a minute or two. The only way I can keep myself drunk for longer is if I keep on constantly drinking like I've just done, but I'm fine now.-"

Frisk chuckled too. They didn't know that. After a couple of seconds though, the human got deep into thought.

"- Can I ask you for a favour?-"

"- If we are talking about meals they are on the house for you.-" Grillby replied without hesitation.

"- It's about the machine. Can you help me turn it on again so we can bring Sans back?-"

The fire elemental froze with the cloth wet with alcohol still on his hand. It sizzled. He did not say a word. He stared right at Frisk like a statue. His mouth hung again.

"- Please? It's Sans.-" Frisk begged and used "puppy eyes". It was very effective. 

"- I thought you'd never ask.-" Grillby sighed as he left the cloth aside and walked away from the counter. It had been a long time since he's had a day off. 

"Sans" That's the key to make him react. For Sans, he would close the bar for a day, like he did in the last RESET with the only difference that in the last RESET he drunk himself to sleep without a care in the world because Sans fell down right there. Something told him he failed someone, someone important, little did he know it was W.D Gaster. 

Thank the timeline Gods that Grillby does not remember that very particular RESET. 

***

Frisk and Grillby went down the small ladder that was made of sticks and rope and tied to a couple of rocks, the kind of ladder that's popular with those who enjoy climbing and descending from cliffs on a daily basis.  
Upon arriving at Snowdin they found themselves with a couple of members from the search team and Frisk yelled out the excuse that they also came looking for Sans and "the more the better". Instead of looking for Sans though, they both walked inside the lab and Grillby was amazed at the sight of the machine and the mess of papers scattered on the ground. His flames popped with surprise.

\- Oh wow...These are very detailed notes.-" Grillby said aloud while looking at the blueprints and reading the notes that Sans wrote. The skeleton obviously translated them in case things got tricky. Sans is not stupid. He imagined going to the Void was a one way ticket and expected Frisk to bring them back. What Sans did not expect, is that Frisk's determination and control of the timeline had a limit, and when he travelled, so did Frisk's determination to the next available SOUL. Chara's soul. Flowey's determination also travelled to the next available flower, thus the reason why his dead body stayed here yet he woke up in the past.

Frisk buried Flowey believing he died for real, his flowery body lays not too far from here but Grillby doesn't need to know that.

"- Do you know how it works?-" Asked Frisk in his direction.

Grillby hesitated for a moment, he placed up his glasses with his index finger.

"- Well... Sans made it quite simple. Here it says that the chosen power source stays inside the machine, and whoever stays out will travel across time and space. There is a small window of 5.23 seconds in which reality can break, so we should be careful for that.-"

Frisk nodded. They were filled with **determination**!

"- Ok. I'm ready.-"

Grillby stopped them from stepping inside the machine. "- Ready for what? You are not going in there, you are not a power source.-" He snapped.

"- My determination SOUL is a power source. I messed up, so I should fix it. I have to fix it and bring Sans back, well, not just Sans...everybody. I will SAVE everyone.-"

Grillby was not amused. If he had eyebrows he would've furrowed them in disbelief, not only his expression was stern but he did not let go of Frisk, of course controlling his flames so he doesn't burn the small human or their clothes. As a fire elemental, Grillby is unconsciously controlling his flames constantly the same way humans beat their heart, breathe, and digest food with their inner organs, but depending on the stress levels he can act like real fire and burn things the same way regular fire would do. 

"- Do you know how dangerous it is to use your SOUL like that?-" 

Frisk gritted their teeth. They did not want to get scolded for trying to save everyone, they were a pacifist, this was meant to be the good ending and nobody shall stand before them once they are determined to do so.

"- There are no more power sources! The entire underground is off and we are not talking about charging a phone or cooking something. We need enough power to break reality for five point something seconds! -" 

Grillby did not even flinch. His flames sparkled.

"- In case you haven't realised I'm an elemental-type monster, which makes me an unlimited power source. _I will go in there_.-" That was not a question. It was a statement.

"- But I broke the barrier! I'm strong!-" They whined.

"- You are a _child_ , Frisk, our ambassador too. I won't let you endanger yourself if I can avoid it, you are the future of humans and monsters. Besides, how can you bring Sans back if you are stuck in there? One travels, the other stays. I have to stay.-"

With that said, Grillby entered inside the machine, minding the glass of course. Frisk watched him step in there and take off his glasses. His clothes are made of fire-resistant material unable to burn but the glasses could break or melt with heat of a thousand suns that Grillby is able to replicate. 

"- Will you be alright? -" Asked Frisk, concern painting their very human features. Grillby chuckled.

"- I won't fall down if that you are wondering. I fought in the war day and night and all I got was exhaustion that can be fixed by resting. Monster SOULS are not as strong as a human SOUL but my body is...something else. I'm not your usual kind of monster. Trust me. -"

Frisk nodded and wished him luck. Grillby wished them luck too, and Frisk only had to press a button. The machine didn't turn red but the floor started shaking and Grillby started burning up, his flames spiked and filled the entire interior of the machine with temperatures that could stand with those of the lava bubbling in the core. Electricity spiked. Steam started rising and filling up the lab with smoke. Frisk could hardly see, it was getting harder to breathe too. It was too hot.

Frisk panicked. For a moment they believed they caught a star inside a gigantic flask, but rather than a star it was more like the sun, and nothing was happening. They heard screaming, ear-raping sound coming from everywhere filled the entire lab and once again scattered the papers and blueprints everywhere. The glass of the machine started cracking because the heat was too much to bear, Grillby started loosing control, he was at his peak of power. Frisk stood before the machine, determined but shaking the same way they once shook when they fought omega Flowey. Their SOUL glowed bright red, and in less than 5 seconds, a breach in reality opened up before them. It was dark. The darkness started cutting deeper...

Frisk walked in and they were sucked by the void. They left the screaming sun behind and used the glow of their own determined SOUL to know where they were going.

The glass broke not a second later, the breach in reality closed. Shards of glass were propelled in all directions, the machine was burned like toast and now it was broken, unable to work ever again. From inside the machine fell Grillby from a cloud of greyish smoke. He was so exhausted he practically face-planted on the floor, unconscious. Instead of being bright orange, his flames were a sickly yellowish colour and his breathing was ragged and laboured.

Because he was unconscious from over-exhaustion, his body acted like regular fire and the blueprints his fingers made contact-with started burning. The were papers absolutely everywhere so, in the end, they all caught fire. Sans's notes burned too, including a drawn picture of two and a half skeletons that said **"don't forget"**. It burned slowly.

The entire lab was on fire and Grillby remained on the floor covered in glass and burning papers. Unresponsive. His cracked glasses rested next to him. Despite being unable to burn away by fire, the lack of oxygen could kill him and the door was very much closed.

A goopy and dark figure suddenly loomed over him.

*** 

Papyrus once again searched Snowdin up and down, left and right. He knows Snowdin is Sans's favourite place so he left waterfall and Hotland for the rest of guards to go and search.

"- SAAAANS! WHERE ARE YOU, YOU LAZY BONES!?-" He yelled, hoping, _praying_ to see Sans taking a nap over a tree or something. He pleaded for a clue, something, anything!

He took the same path he took yesterday, but came to a halt when he realised something was off. He froze before his awesome snow figure of himself. His mouth hung. He shook.

Now there were two. This one wasn't here yesterday.

Papyrus felt his legs go numb, he kneeled on the snow and wept, he sobbed but at the same time he was smiling. On top of Sans's snowpuff where he wrote his name with ketchup, a very well-made replica of a younger Sans smiling stood next to Papyrus's awesome snow figure. It was made with magic of course, and it was perfect. Only Sans could've done that.

The ground started suddenly shaking and a big explosion echoed through and through the entire underground. Papyrus despite not having ears placed his hands over his head and grimaced. Whatever that was, it rattled his every bone with energy he can't describe.

"-OWEEE..-" He whined, tears still rolled down his cheeks. When the noise subdued, he opened his eyes and blinked. Both snow statues became a big pile of snow all together, the floor shook so much they could not keep it's shape. Pity.

"- NYE?-" Papyrus started looking around the snow in confusion, after a couple of seconds to readjust himself to what just happened, he sniffed the air and realised the smell of smoke filled his nose-holes. Without a word he wiped off his tears and stood up in a flash, missing the shadow of a smiling monster that dissipated behind a tree. 

He ran towards the smoke that filled the air in the distance, something was definitely burning and when he guessed what it was he ran even faster. His house was on fire! Yet he stopped, again, because he saw someone lying in the snow far enough from the burning place. That someone was on fire too, but not to worry, because it was Grillby.

According to the traces on the snow, Grillby was carried outside and someone had clearly been here with him but the traces ended there. Whoever stayed by his side disappeared without a trace and left only his cracked glasses behind along with some shards of glass. Papyrus ignored the burning place and ran to aid the unconscious monster, leaving his own footsteps on the snow. His red scarf wavered behind him.

"- MISTER GRILLBY! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?! WHAT HAPPENED?! MISTER GRILLBY?-" Papyrus kneeled before him and shook him slightly, concern was visible in his skeletal features. Could fire elemental get hurt? At least he had been carried to safety so that was good, but just to make sure, Papyrus checked his STATS and found out his HP was maxed out.

Someone healed him! Papyrus realised too late that those shards of glass now sitting in the snow were before embedded on him, thus the cuts on his uniform. Papyrus was unsure what kind of monster could have _carried and healed_ an unconscious fire elemental all the way here without burning their hands off in the process, he as a skeleton could do such a thing, but Papyrus didn't know any other skeleton apart from him. Whoever did this just saved Grillby's life. 

Grillby woke up in a flash and started coughing out smoke and breathing in the fresh air of Snowdin, such precious oxygen that fire needs to sustain itself alive. He wasn't a sickly yellow colour anymore, but his usual orangy red. Because he was still very tired though, he was more reddish around the edges. He panted while Papyrus helped him to stay upright.

"- I haven't been yellow since...the war...-" He heaved. "- Oh God...I'm never doing that s*it again.-"

"- MR GRILLBY?-" 

The fire elemental stopped heaving and looked at him, now realising who this helping hand belonged to, his flames popped and turned slightly redder. He wasn't meant to curse before him. Grillby didn't even know what he was doing sprawled on the snow in Snowdin either, was this another dream? Did Papyrus save him? He has notions of somebody carrying him and speaking to him but all he could hear were noises and unintelligible gibberish. Whatever it was, it faded from his mind really quickly.

"- Oh hello Papyrus. Good to see you here.-" He greeted with a smile

"- WHAT HAPPENED? I HEARD A LOUD EXPLOSION AND IT FELT VERY WEIRD!-" Replied the skeleton as he grabbed his cracked glasses and handed them to him. Grillby once again hesitated. He placed them on and adjusted them on his face.

"- I...I don't remember.-" He muttered, genuinely confused, and looked back at Papyrus's old house being engulfed by flames. His head turned two tones redder, shame and embarrassment overflowed him.

"- D-did I do that?-"

Many footsteps echoed in the distance as Papyrus opened his mouth to reply, Undyne and a bunch of guards came running towards them at full speed. Undyne of course being the fastest. The canine guards had to catch up by using his four limbs instead of running in two. 

Papyrus stood up and waved over-dramatically to pin-point his location. He had a big smile on his face. His scarf waved too. Grillby stayed on the floor, still very, _very_ confused of what was happening.

"- UNDYYYNEEEE LOOK! I FOUND HIM! HE'S SAVE AND SOUND!-" Papyrus yelled. A big smile appeared on Undyne's face upon seeing them both. 

"- Yeaahhhh!! That's great!-" She exclaimed. The canine guards heaved with relief, most with their tongues already out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand Sans was forgotten already. Oof


	10. The knot, the loop and the man made of goop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's be honest here... That isolated room in waterfall may be the easiest cell to escape from in the history of ever. 
> 
> also also this chapter includes some CHARActer development.

"- Are you going to stare at the buttons all day or are you going to tell me how it works?-" 

Chara snapped Flowey out of his train of thoughts, their red SOUL dimmed and the buttons disappeared before their eyes. The flower flinched and hesitated for only a second. If the only options were ERASE and DO NOT there was nothing much they could do at this point but Flowey was unsure about the meaning of this. 

"- Me? HA! I don't know _aaanything_ about science.-" Flowey bickered while staring right up them, winking and flexing to the side.

Chara did not like that answer one bit but Asriel had other plans and used this opportunity to flee this lab and go back to the comfort of his home to act like nothing happened. He was very weirded out by all of this. Buttons...timeline...determination...a talking flower... It was too much for the prince to bear.

"- Can we please go back home now? We can try tomorrow!-" He exclaimed.

If Chara could facepalm, they would. Now not only they had to deal with an uncooperative flower, but a crybaby too, and the flower technically was a hostage but Flowey didn't seem to have much sense of self-preservation now. Flowey fulfilled his word after all, he showed them the machine, but from showing it to turning it on there's a big gap in between.

Chara sighed and turned to face their goat sibling.

"- Not yet Asriel, we have to speak with Gaster first. If we want to be free, we have to make this work.-"

"- But...-" Asriel's face twisted into a frown. Chara walked towards him and grabbed one of the blueprints they held earlier. In their reddish eyes, there was only determination.

"- It's either his plan or my plan.-" Chara announced as serious as they could be while pointing to Flowey that remained curled around their arm. Asriel still remembers the way Flowey begged not to be eaten. Are lives always at stake when Chara is involved? Aparently yes.

"- Mom will be angry when she knows you went to see him... That's why she isolated him, so you can never see each other again.-" Asriel mumbled while playing with his paws. Flowey groaned. _"- So typical of Toriel...overprotecting her children until she bores them to death.-"_ He thought.

Chara's eyebrows lifted upwards. They did not know that. Asriel knew because the conversation that Toriel had with the dog guards travelled all the way to Asgore's room where he rested, and the king of monsters was so groggi he started mumbling things without even realising that Asriel was right there with him. _"- Stay away from my children...Gaster...You shall be isolated in waterfall...where your hands can't reach.-"_

It seems Toriel got her overprotective nature from someone.

"- Very bold of Toriel to assume he was the dangerous one! HAHAHAHAHAHAhaha...haa...-" 

Flowey's laughter stopped with a single glare of Chara. They were not smiling but it still brought shivers to Flowey's stem. "- Too soon?-" He croaked, but to his surprise, instead of a threat, Chara looked genuinely hurt at the accusation

"- I'm not dangerous, okay? My intentions are always good but the path I take is not the most beautiful one. Do you know want to know why?-"

Flowey didn't give it much thought. "- So you can't be assaulted? I mean...only an IDIOT would want to hurt you with that smile you've got. In this world is either _kill or be killed_. -" He replied, curtly, and couldn't avoid to show a creepy smile of his own.

Chara huffed. "- Well you are wrong.-" And flowey flinched, confused. That was their entire existence in a single phrase and Chara simply nodded and pushed it away. 

"-That's my defence mechanism because that was the path I was taught, the one full of pain and suffering! But monster kind isn't like that. Monsters are filled with so much... _love and hope_...they don't DESERVE to be locked up down here so the real monsters can roam the lands above! I am so thankful to still be alive and sane because of monsters that I would gladly DIE for them as well! They deserve the world! -"

Chara breathed heavily after that rant that nearly brought tears to their eyes. Asriel placed a soft paw on their shoulder. Flowey froze. Chara's arm was...shaking.

Love. Not love as in LV but as in real love. That's what Chara's determination was all about, that is what Flowey always wanted too but because he couldn't feel it, that's why he always felt empty. Because he was awakened with Chara's determination, and determination has memories, all that Flowey felt constantly was that phrase over and over again. "It's either kill or be killed." To give himself a meaning to be alive. All the negative feelings and emotions Chara had were injected inside him, that's why he is neither a monster or a human. Flowey is a mistake that should've never awakened.

Not only that, but Flowey's favourite motto was proved wrong by Chara themselves. Flowey knew he shouldn't be here, he knew it was hopeless to keep going, but now he started feeling sorry for everything. Being so close to the SOUL whose determination that awakened him from the dead started making Flowey feel things, and to say he hated it was probably an understatement. Determination from Chara felt completely different than the determination from Frisk. In fact, Flowey realised a bit too late that they were polar opposites. 

"- Are you alright?-" Asriel asked softly, clearly this isn't their first breakdown Asriel had to deal with. Chara sniffed and brushed their nose with their green sleeve.

"- Yeah...I just... I really need to see monster kind be happy and free, at least once. I want you to experience freedom Asriel. I don't mind dying in the most painful way if it's for you. The humans...they...-" Chara's throat tightened. Flowey waited expectantly but Asriel interrupted with a pure smile on his face that Flowey had to look away from.

"- I don't mind being trapped here if you are here, you are important Chara.-"

The human huffed again. "- No I'm not. I have to repay everything you've done for me. If it weren't for you I would be dead, I should BE dead!That's what I was going for in the first place, but guess what? I found myself a better reason to die, or better yet, you found me.-"

Flowey chuckled as both children shared a tender moment together. He got it all wrong all along. "- I really am an IDIOT.-" Flowey said to himself, a shadow crossing his face. It seems the smiley trashbag once again was one step ahead of him, Sans did not sacrifice himself for the sake of sacrificing but because he knew this plan was never meant to work. 

"- Yeah you are. You travelled here with this but you don't know how it works.-" Chara snapped at his direction, forcing Flowey to growl.

"- It wasn't me who turned it on! GEEZ!-" 

"-Pffft.-" They held inside laughter upon seeing Flowey's reaction. Chara seemed to be in a better mood now, and Asriel realised maybe it can't be so bad to follow the flower. If Chara saw monsters on the surface, would they still want to follow their plan? All that Asriel wanted was for them not to die, and maybe turning this machine will make his hopes and dreams come true. Who knows.

"- I... I know where Gaster is. He's in an isolated cell in waterfall!-" He announced out loud with the slightest tinge of bravery. Chara smiled at him, they were proud. Flowey was slightly amused.

"- Well,well,well. The crybaby decided not to run home to mom and help me out for once.-"

"- I just want to see you happy, Chara. I'm doing this for you too.-" Asriel replied without hesitation, and got himself a half hug from their sibling. "- You dork.-"

Asriel took the words out of Flowey's mouth. A bittersweet flavour filled his tongue, and it's not because Flowey was a literal poisonous flower, but maybe because no matter how much he tried the plan was meant to fail. Chara never saw monsters on the surface, Frisk did, and for some reason Flowey kept mistaking one for the other as if they were the same one.

What an IDIOT he was.

***

This time it was Gerson and two different guards who stood before the door. Holes of spears decorated the surroundings of the long corridor.

 _"-The youngsters in love nowadays...-"_ He muttered to himself when he recieved the news that his best trainee decided to lash out to the guards, Alphys trailing behind her. Gerson half expected it, only Alphys would be able to convince her to do something THAT stupid, but it would take more than that to distract him.

What Gerson wasn't expecting, was to see the _prince_ and his human sibling walking side by side. Chara holding a big blue paper rolled in their hand and a big...Flower monster? Gerson had never seen something like it.

The guards knelt before the children. Gerson stepped forwards.

"- Young prince! How may I help you?-" 

"- We need to speak with Gaster.-" Said Chara before Asriel could even open his mouth.

"- Ah...I don't think that will be possible. King Asgore made very clear that we don't let him out under no condition.-" 

"- So that means we can come in instead?-" Asked Chara, trying to be serious but they could not hold back a smirk. Gerson hesitated, he wasn't expecting this.

"- It won't take long. I promise.-" Asriel murmured with a kindred smile. Gerson's eyes moved from one to another, and finally rested on the golden flower that blinked but didn't a say a word. That was a very rare sight. He'd never seen a flower monster before.

"- Well...um...Nobody can understand a word he's saying. He's not...-"

"- We know what happened to him.-" Chara interrupted with determination on their eyes, and squeezed Asriel's hand twice which in secret sibling code means _"use your adorable face to let us in"_

Asriel recieved the message and tried his hardest. "- Can we talk to him PLeeaAaase?-"

Gerson had never felt so uncomfortable. If letting them in for a moment will get them off his tail then so be it. He can't say no to the prince. With a huff, Gerson turned around to face the guards that stepped out of the doors way.

"- Anything more than a minute and I'll have to come in there myself.-"

Asriel thanked him and when the grey door opened, both children and Flowey were welcomed by a black goopy figure that was facing the wall. Asriel started shaking.

"- Uuhhh...Gaster?-" Called Chara, and Gaster turned around slowly to see them, but when he did, he screamed.

"- ✌︎✌︎✌︎✌︎✌︎✌︎✌︎✌︎✌︎✌︎✌︎✌︎☟︎!!!-"

Despite barely keeping his shape together, when his working eye set itself on Flowey he stammered backwards against the further corner and screamed unintelligible things at them. His hand pointed at Flowey and shook. He spoke in sounds that weren't even a language. The guards were right. Asriel calmed down a bit after realising Gaster was more scared of them than he was of him. 

"- What is he saying?-" Asriel whined at Chara's direction. The human's expression had twisted into a mixture of empathy, disgust and confusion towards the shaking, glitching goop with a broken face and pierced hands. Gaster was barely recognisable and also trying his best to warn them of Flowey.

"- He's...scared of me?-" Chara muttered aloud, and that's the moment Flowey had enough because he knew Gaster was scared of him, not them. He twisted his vines to grab the blueprints Chara was holding and unfolded them for Gaster to see and hopefully stop his panic attack once and for all.

"- HEY DUMBASS! I'm not gonna do anything to them, I had enough. I just want to go back to where I came from. Can you make this work or not?!-" 

Gaster froze and hesitated, staring at the blueprints of Sans's prototype. He mumbled something else that nobody in the room understood. 

"- Time's up prince! Come out in ten or I will come in myself.-" Gerson's voice came from the other side of the grey door.

Chara took a step forwards, time was ticking fast. "- Please Gaster! I want to try again!-" They begged with such determination that their SOUL glowed out of their chest.

Gaster nodded and signalled them to get closer with hand motions. Hesitantly so, Chara did but Asriel didn't, Gaster was too goopy and scary for him so the prince stepped back agaisnt the closest wall.

"- Chara...? What are you doing?-"

When Gerson opened the door and walked inside, he froze and blinked just to make sure he was not imagining things. Asriel was alone and shaking inside the grey room, tears glassed his eyes. Gaster and Chara just disappeared before him, one second they were there, the next...nothing.

"- Oh for Asgore's sake! GASTER!-" Gerson exclaimed to the heavens, angry because he took Chara, but more angry because it was no use to guard a door when that someone can teleport anywhere at any given moment. What was the use of this cell anyways? Why were guards here? 

***  
"- UUgh!-" Flowey grimaced. He hated "shortcuts", especially if the one doing them has the texture and consistency of mushed pudding. Chara did not seem to mind much, despite being covered in black goop and grime, they were dumbfounded to open their eyes and find themselves inside the lab again.

"- WOah. You can teLEporT?!-" Chara exclaimed, excited like a child.

Gasted nodded and smiled at them, then he got to work, glaring at Flowey for a last with as much hate as he could muster. Despite being made of literal goop, he could keep his shape enough to click the necessary buttons and input the necessary numbers for the glass door to open with a _"KSSSSHHH"_ sound.

He motioned them to step inside, mumbling more incoherent sounds in wingdings.

"- Yeah, yeah...You won't see ever again...mumble, mumble...GOD will you just SHUT UP!-" Flowey snapped all of a sudden at his direction. Gaster was not amused. 

"- You can understand him?!-" Chara exclaimed as they stepped inside the machine, Flowey curled around their forearm.

"- A bit. I'm not fluent in amalgam language but I've been with them long enough to know how they work.-" Replied flower.

"- AmalgaWHAT?-" Chara asked, but Gaster pressed the button to close the glass door. He said something else before he turned it on. Chara was clueless.

Flowey chuckled.

"- That's not gonna happen old man, not soon at least. We all failed.-"

Gaster growled angrily and pressed their entire fist in the button that turned the machinery on. The process felt the same as last time. Chara's SOUL glowed red, the sound shook everything, Flowey closed his eyes...but when he opened them he was not where he thought he would be. He was still curled around Chara's forearm and both floated in darkness, darkness was all he could see.

"- Huh. So...this is your world? If it is, no wonder you came to mine.-" Chara mocked as they looked around. 

"- W-what? NO! This is not it! I swear.-" Flowey snapped, he started shaking. He knows where he was, and he did not like it.

**"- Ah, welcome...welcome...you finally arrived.-"**

Chara turned to see a very familiar monster. "- Doctor Gaster! You can speak normally now?-" 

Gaster only chuckled. It was good to finally meet them again in good terms after so long, he owed them an apology and the truth first and foremost. He could explain later that the Gaster they left behind and him are technically the same but _also_ not the same Gaster.

**"- Hello human...Asriel.-"**

"- Asriel?-" Repeated Chara, and looked at Flowey with shock and incredulity.

From Behind Gaster, two more figures appeared.

"- Frisk!-" Exclaimed Flowey with relief upon seeing them. Frisk waved back.

"- Heya. Welcome to the screw-ups reunion party!-" Sans saluted, floating right next to them and smiling to himself. 

Flowey grimaced upon seeing the Skeleton, so small and carefree. The smiley trashbag looked so...young and not like a trashbag. He was dirty with grease too. His smile was the closest thing to genuine Flowey had ever seen on him.

Frisk and Chara stared each other down. Their SOULS glowed red in unison. Both ends that tie this loop together found each other in the centre and not a word was shared between them but a single question.

"- Do I...know you?-" Chara asked first before Frisk could open their mouth. The feeling of deja-vu was strong here.

Frisk shrugged their shoulders. The answer was a "yes" and a "no" at the same time. What could they possibly say? Thanks to Chara, they were able to beat the God of Hyperdeath and SAVE everyone. Thanks to Chara, their first genocide route was erased when they got possessed and killed everybody. Chara was sometimes the determination they needed to do things and Chara is what keeps Flowey...Flowey. Chara is also the one who suggested Sans to use determination on the machine, those were their memories!

Frisk extended a kind hand forwards. Chara doesn't know them yet, but they will one day, why not make that day today?

"- My name is Frisk. Nice to meet you!-" They exclaimed, full of positive energy that freaked out Chara a little bit.

"- Nice...to...meet you...I guess.-" Chara replied the same way a robot would, they did not shake Frisk's hand. "- So this is the human from your world.-" They whispered to Flowey, still curled around their forearm.

"- Yeah.-" Flowey grumbled, and shot them a mocking chuckle. "- Your social skills _suck_.-" 

"- Flowey. Be nice.-" Frisk scolded, which brought the attention and curiosity of Chara to surface.

"- So you are the one who brought the monsters to the surface?-" They asked, just to rectify and hear it twice. 

"- YUP! I'm a pacifist!-" Frisk gleamed, proudly. Chara smiled. 

"- Hah...I didn't know pacifist humans could exist.-"

After allowing that image and thought to sink in and seep like tea, Chara extended their hand forwards. They looked happy. Finally they found someone with a sharing trait, the one of determination to free those who deserve it the most no matter how hard. A friend? Should they go that far?

"- I'm Chara. Chara Dreemur.-"

Frisk and Chara shook hands. Their red SOULS glowed in unison.


	11. ERASE or DO NOT?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We reach the end of this journey...  
> It's bittersweet flavoured

Sans made his last snow figure for his brother.

Gaster said his final goodbye to his best friend by saving his life. He gave Grillby a second chance the same way the fire elemental gave it to him in the other world, and despite being unconscious, Gaster thanked him for taking care of Papyrus for him and Sans both. Grillby not only is the monster who somewhat remembered him, but Gaster was glad to have fought the war alongside him. It's a shame things had to end this way, but it is for the better. Sans could not suffer like this any longer.

Frisk decided a very long time ago they did not want to RESET anymore. They wanted everybody to be saved and happy, that, they had clear.

Flowey gave up on trying to make things better, much like Sans, but not the carefree teenager version of him who just recently learned what was going on. No. The smiley trashbag that Flowey knows, _that_ Sans, the one who would happily greet a genocidal kid with a whoopee cushion.

And Chara...well...they were determined to save monster kind just like Frisk did, or at least to see them all happy for once, which is why Gaster allowed them to see the surface from the void for an entire minute, as much as he could hold it.

Chara, while invisible, saw Frisk's world with Gaster explaining things as they teleported from place to place. They saw their mother and father, many monsters roamed on the streets and humans did not seem to mind. Humanity had _changed_. Chara was relieved to put it simply, after the shock subdued they were very content with what they saw. Frisk's world was perfect, but... something was missing. 

"- And Asriel? Why isn't he there?-" Chara asked upon coming back. As much as Gaster hated delivering bad news, he couldn't keep the truth from them. 

**"- Your plan got you both killed. Flowey is Asriel, he was born from his dust and your determination.-"**   
Gaster's hand pointed at Flowey that growled upon becoming the centre of attention. Chara's expression softened. They never knew the consequences for their actions would be so bad.

"- That's some real freaky stuff you are made of, princey.-" Exclaimed Sans who was busy floating around with his hands inside his pockets. He was clearly enjoying the moment, slowly looking and acting more and more like the trashbag Flowey knew, but a bit more carefree and happy.

Flowey groaned loudly, he didn't know what name felt worse. Weed or princey? They both sound annoying and wrong to him. Chara who was still recuperating from the shock of the first news, decided to speak out to Flowey as who he was.

"- Asriel I...-"

"- DON'T. -" Flowey snapped. "- _Asriel is dead_. Whatever it is you were going to say...save it. I can't feel love, I can't feel anything! I have no SOUL either so shut it.-" 

Chara frowned. "- I was going to apologise. I never wanted this for you. You know that, right?-"

"- Yeah, I know now, but not everyone can be saved okay? No matter how much we try. You know, I could only be Asriel for a minute or two, that's how much I was saved.-"

"- First, you were the God of Hyperdeath.-" Frisk exclaimed, thus breaking the tender moment in pieces because Chara could not contain their laughter of pure joy upon hearing it, they laughed so hard tears peaked their eyes and they had to bend. Even Sans giggled.

"-PfffffhahahahHAHAHAHAhahaHA!-"

"- YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO SAY THAT!-" Flowey barked at Frisk's direction, if flowers could blush Flowey would've blushed scarlet right about not.

"- Did you...did you really keep that cringey name?! You didn't change that much then!-" Chara exclaimed between chuckles, they dried out their tears of laughter with their sleeve. Flowey turned to face them with a very comical expression, like the one a child makes when they pout for being told it's bedtime.

"- I did! I am less of a crybaby now!-" Flowey yelled to the void, but the void did not echo his words back.

"- Excuses, excuses....I saw you crying real tears when I.... Ah.-" Chara's smile froze, Chara themselves stopped breathing for a moment upon the realisation of what they tried to do not too long ago. They were spooked. Did they really take their sibling as a hostage?

"- Oh my GOD _INEARLYATEASRIEL_!-" They yelled without taking a breath, loud enough for everybody present to hear.

Sans and Frisk gasped in unison, loudly, Gaster is the only one who wasn't impressed because he saw everything unfold from the void. 

**"- Children...we are getting out of topic. The past and future rests in your hands now, the void is not a playground.-"**

"- B-but...Flowey...Asriel was nearly _eaten_! Wouldn't that bring consequences?-" Chara pleaded, still recovering from the panic that was knowing this. Flowey didn't seem to mind much. _"- Don't shake me so much!-"_ He barked, but he was ignored.

"- Eeeh nope. We are all doomed to die one way or another so...nope. That's my final offer.-" Sans replied, and Gaster shot him an incredulous glare. Frisk and Chara both froze.

**"- Sans, you were meant to explain things bit by bit. -"**

"- I think they got the message alright.-" Sans smirked, but Gaster only pointed at both humans. 

**"- Do you think that looks like the expression from someone who understands? You haven't even told them what you are offering.-"**

"- What do you mean we are all doomed? Is that why I can't RESET?-" Frisk interrupted that small family discussion with a very concerning question, Chara's eyebrows simply decided to travel all the way up to their forehead.

"- What the heck is a RESET? They asked. 

Sans's eyesockets went black. He placed his two hands together. _"- Ooh boy.-"_

 _"- UUUUUuuuugh.-"_ Flowey groaned, again.

Gaster practically stepped in front of Sans, blocking the view. He wasn't in the mood to deal with so many children at once.

 **"- Allow me to do it.-"** He huffed.

"- The spotlight is all yours G-man!-" Sans exclaimed.

**"- Frisk. Let me be honest with you, you can't RESET at the moment because the timeline belongs to Chara now, and I know you are very aware of the only options they can offer you. The choice is yours, but I recommend not to start this all over again because we trapped ourselves on quite a loop.-"**

"- A loop? What do you mean?-" Pleaded Frisk.

 **"- It means you four fighting against destiny has created a knot between your world, and theirs.The past, and the future.-"** Gaster explained, pointing at Frisk and Chara relatively before facing back at Frisk while putting his pierced hands forwards as if simulating that he had the two buttons before him. **"-The option is yours to ERASE Sans and Flowey from everybody's memories forever, including yours. Or you can go back to your world only remembering that you failed to bring Sans back so you will automatically RESET start this loop all over again.-"**

Frisk's breathing quickened. They couldn't believe they failed so bad, they were so determined to save every single one...

"- You want me to erase Sans and Flowey?! How am I supposed to save everyone without them!?-" Frisk exclaimed.

 **"- You already saved everybody, Frisk, but they are the only unsaveable souls from the underground, including myself. You will forget them, and so will you, Chara. The Gaster from your world shall disappear and so will the room he's in. When you come back to your world, your plan will continue without any...flowery interruptions.-"** He glared at Flowey who turned his head the other way, exhaling a sharp breath.

Chara didn't seem very shocked about that, they had been planning this for quite a while now and they cared more about Asriel than anything at the moment. They closed their hands into fists.

"- So Asriel and I will die a gruesome death?-" They asked as they floated towards Gaster, mimicking Flowey's words with a much sadder undertone. A shadow crossed Flowey's face.

Gaster hesitated.

**"- Not quite. You certainly will, but if Flowey gets ERASED I am unsure what will the timeline do to fill in that gap. Maybe Asriel lives, maybe not...who knows? If look at the bright side, you were able to experience freedom for a bit. You know what kind of future awaits. Maybe Asriel gets to see it too.-"**

"- And what about Frisk? Are they and unsaveable too?-" Asked Chara without hesitation. Frisk nearly placed their hand in the chest because of how awed they were that Chara was thinking of them as much they thought of Asriel. Chara never thought once about themselves. 

**"- No, no Frisk is safe. They make the choices. They are your future and the future of monsters and humans. They are the ambassador.-"**

Chara's mouth hung while Sans whisled in amusement. "- Good going kid!-" He cheered them on.

"- That's good. I'm glad.-" Chara sighed in relief, but Flowey once again huffed.

"- Glad why? You will _die_ you IDIOT!-" He barked, but they didn't see a trace of discomfort in Chara's expression, their smile was soft and not creepy at all. Chara was very happy to die just so everybody could have the future they just witnessed, and if there was a small window of chance for Asriel to live it too, then that was more reasons to try this again and do it properly this time. Their plan changed slightly. Determination had memories, and this...they would not forget this.

"- I'm glad a true pacifist will take care of monster kind. We are like...a team. It feels nice. I never teamed up with a human before.-" 

Frisk and Chara looked at each other in the eye, they shared with one another a hundred messages that travelled inside that eye contact. Frisk floated towards them, hoping that they would reconsider.

"- Chara, you don't have to...You don't deserve...-"

"- Take care of everyone for me. I believe in you.-"

Chara extended their hand forwards, two buttons loomed before them. **ERASE** and **DO NOT**. Their soul glowed bright red, but so did Frisk's.

"- Whoooo! Way to go kid!-" Sans cheered again. Gaster smiled at his son. Now that's a smile that's worth dying for. He knows it will be easier for everyone if they just forget him, and yet he's content because he tried his best. He's not suffering, he won't suffer anymore and that is good enough. While stuck in the void, they have plenty of things to catch on to, and with Flowey as well, hell, they might even have three times as fun!

 _"- WAIT!-"_ Frisk yelled, and this time, it was Flowey's vines that curled around Chara's hand that stopped them from pressing that button. Everybody froze upon seeing the flower struggle, Chara's fingers shook, they were just inches away from the glowing button but the vines pushed them backwards.

 _"- Asriel? W-what are you doing?-"_ Chara muttered while struggling. Frisk stopped too. Flowey was just inches away from the "DO NOT" button too, and because they had control of Chara's arm, they could very easily...

"- I have to say one last thing to you, Frisk. I'm not gonna be erased and forgotten just like that. Determination has memories so you better engrave what I am about to say in your SOUL. _All of you!_ -" The flower announced to everybody, and Frisk calmed as Flowey sighed and prepared to say his last words to both humans. 

"- Go ahead Princey.-" Said Sans, Gaster simply listened. He was curious. A flower with deniability? that's new.

"- In this world it's not just kill or be killed, many suffering can be avoided because everybody has choices, even a soulless flower like me. We can choose to do good...or not. Nobody is above consequences and anything can happen so...-" Flowey glared at Gaster and Sans as if apologising to them both for the choices that he made before he looked back to see Chara in the eye, their sibling that's literally willing to die for him and everybody else. Flowey may not have a SOUL, but he sure felt like he had one right now. He had a _choice_.

"- If in the end I am alive as Asriel and not Flowey... Save me. And don't ever RESET again.-"

Flowey did not have to repeat that twice. Frisk placed their hand over their glowing red SOUL. "- I promise.-" They said, their lip already quivering. This time they would save _everybody_ without an exception.

Flowey and Chara pressed the button together the same way they once broke the barrier together. 

**TIMELINE ERASED.**

**STARTING NEW TIMELINE...**

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**STARTING TIMELINE...**


	12. Epilogue  (After the war)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter! I always wanted Asriel to be saved in the original Undertale game but because canon is usually cruel I made my very own ending HAHAHAHAHA

**Long ago, two races ruled Earth; HUMANS and MONSTERS.**

**One day, war broke out between the two races. After a long battle, the humans were victorious. They sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell.**

**Many years later...**

**A human fell into the ruins, hurt by their fall they called for help. Asriel, the king's son, heard the human's call. He brought the human back to the castle. Over time, Asriel and the human became like siblings. The King and Queen treated the human child as their own. The underground was full of hope.**

**Then...one day...The human became very ill and died. ASRIEL, wrecked with grief, absorbed the human's SOUL. He transformed into a being with incredible power. With the human SOUL, Asriel crossed through the barrier, he carried the human's body into the sunset back to the village of humans. Asriel reached the centre of the village, he was seen by everybody.**

**Suddently, screams rang out. The villagers saw Asriel holding the human's body and they thought he had killed the child. The humans attacked him with everything they had, he was struck with blow after blow. Asriel had the power to destroy them all but he did not fight back. Still clutching the human, he smiled and walked away. Now he understood many things about their best friend that before did not make much sense.**

**Wounded, Asriel stumbled home. He entered the castle and collapsed. His body containing unlimited power, hopes and dreams, fell down. The Determination from the SOUL he absorbed was the only thing that kept him from dusting away but Asriel would not wake.**

**When a monster falls down they can never wake again, but it's believed DETERMINATION would wake him.**

**The kingdom fell into despair. The King and Queen lost two children in one night. The humans once again had taken everything from them, so the king decided it was time to end the monsters suffering. Every human that fell down died, one after another.**

**Kindness, Bravery, Perseverance, Justice, Patience, Integrity...**

**With enough human SOULS the barrier could be shattered forever, but monsters only needed one last SOUL, a determination SOUL to wake Asriel once and for all.**

**Then the last human fell down, one called Frisk, and they were DETERMINED to save monster kind.**

*** Time skip ***

The barrier was broken. Monsters moved up the surface and everybody was happy...well, maybe some were a work in progress. A certain goat prince had to be carried home from the bar last night. Asriel got drunk on special alcohol he loaned from Grillby's, despite being a child, his body was very much adult, with horns and all, he could perfectly fit in an adult sized shirt and cargo shorts. His monster SOUL still had Chara's one inside him, both SOULS seemed to sustain each other alive in perfect balance.

"- Time to wake up Asriel! Come on!-" Frisk jumped and down on Asriel's back. He was currently slumped on the couch and groaned loudly. The headache was killing him.

_"- UuuuuuuuuUuGghh.-"_

"- You have an appointment with Alphys and the science crew this morning. Do you want to be late? You know your therapist won't be happy if she knew you went to the bar last night agaiiiiin.-" Mocked Frisk while they opened Asriel's eyelids with their fingers. The prince was as big as the couch, in fact, his feet dangled outside the fluffy blanket that Toriel placed over him the night before. 

"- Tell mom to call them and cancel the damn appointment, fallen monsters can wait for salvation.-" He grumbled with his head against the pillow, his voice muffled. 

Frisk chuckled towards the sight and played with the strap from the bag they carried on their back. They know Asriel didn't mean what he just said, he's just a bit lazy and getting used to not having humanity kill him upon sight. Thanks to Chara's SOUL that he absorbed, he did not become dust when he fell down, and right now monsters are trying to find a way to wake up fallen monsters the same way Asriel did so he gave them consent to experiment a bit. He still is a being of unlimited power.

"- Come on, wake up! It's my turn to be with dad this week, your turn with mom. Then we swap.-" 

Asriel dared to open his eyes and stare at them face-on this time. "- Don't you have ambassador homework you have to do instead of bothering me?-" 

"- I have school today. Also, mom told me to wake you. My bags are packed and I'm ready to go!-" Frisk turned around so Asriel could see the heavy blue backpack they carried. He sighed in awe. 

"- Right...You couldn't leave without saying goodbye to your big goat-brother eh?-"

"- Nope!-" Frisk gleamed, proudly, and won themselves a soft noogie from Asriel. 

"- Goodbye then, squirt. And pass me the jar of pickles before you go.-"

"- Eeew you are gonna drink that?-" Frisk exclaimed, a tad disgusted by the thought that Asriel has a collection of pickle juice in the fridge, but still walked to get it for him nonetheless.

"- It takes away the effects of alcohol. Ah! And tell Papyrus when you see him that his Godfather has some good ass rum!-" 

"- ASRIEL! Language!-" Toriel exclaimed loudly from the kitchen. Both Asriel and Frisk chuckled. They handed the pickle jar to Asriel and he opened it, then sniffed it as if it were perfume. _"- Aaahhh sweet pickly relief of a hungover.-"_ He muttered to himself, dreamily.

A loud knock came from the front door. Frisk's smile widened.

"- Gotta go mom! See you next week!-" Frisk yelled.

"- Have a safe trip!-" Replied Toriel from the kitchen, where she was busy making a snail pie.

"- OH! OH! And tell Miss Muffet to save me some spider muffins! The chocolate ones! -" Asriel added after taking a sip from the jar, for some reason Asriel has taken a liking to fill himself with sweets after drinking pickle juice, especially chocolate.

"- Whatever Dorkriel.-" Frisk replied, and opened the door. Two identical Monster Kids stood before them, the only way to differentiate them depended on the schoolbag they carried over their neck due to the lack of arms. One had a green bag, the other a red one.

"- _Heya Frisk!_ -" They saluted in unison.

"- Good morning monster twins!-" Frisk replied, but because the door was still open, Asriel also lifted up his hand that wasn't holding a pickle jar. "- Sup!-" He yelled from the couch.

"- Hello, prince Asriel!-" Said one. "- Helloo!-" Said the other, the clumsy one who nearly fell down from trying to see over Frisk's head by jumping.

After the door shut and Frisk was gone, Asriel took another sip from the pickle jar and sighed in relief. The headache was starting to dimmer.

 **"- I hope you are aware that I can taste everything you eat.-"** Said a familiar voice inside his head. Asriel smiled. He had not told the science team about this small little secret, he doesn't want anybody to believe he's going mad either, especially not his therapist.

"- Don't worry Chara, Frisk will bring us chocolate muffins later. Your favourite.-" He muttered in a low voice.

"- Asriel! Do you want a piece of snail pie?!-" Exclaimed Toriel from the kitchen, and Asriel's face brightened up.

**"- Don't you dare.-"**

"- No thanks!-" He replied, and watched his mother sigh and place her hands over her hips.

"- You don't like it anymore? It was your favourite when you were a child.-" She huffed.

"- I am technically not a child anymore.-" Asriel winked, and even used the very famous finger guns.

**"- Good safe Dorkriel.-"**

"- Don't call me that!-" 

"- So what do you prefer me to call you, my child?-" Asked Toriel, a bit concerned if anything because they did not expect their child to grow up so quickly, so fast. Asriel was forced to improvise something, and just like his father, he is not good at naming things.

"- Eeeeeeeeeh.... Prince of...Hyperdeath?-"

Chara laughed. Prince of Hyperdeath was not as cringey as the God version, but it was still laughable. Toriel giggled, but like the good mother she is, she accepted her child's decision.

"- Alright then.-" She cleared her throat and swallowed laughter as best as she could. "- Prince of Hyperdeath, you better not be late for your appointments today. You have a VERY busy schedule.-" She straightened her back as if she were a soldier, clearly mocking Asriel that sighed in disbelief. This one won't be forgotten anytime soon.

Asriel stood up from the couch, blushing scarlet. Chara remained laughing inside his brain.

"- Thanks mom.-" He panned, and when he left upstairs to change, Toriel remained laughing all by herself.


	13. The sacred texts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> THE SACRED TEXTS!!

**SPECIAL THANKS TO:**

####  **[Scribbly_sketches123](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scribbly_sketches123/pseuds/Scribbly_sketches123) **for giving me support, comments and feedback on all my chapters.

**Toby Fox ( The literal creator of UNDERTALE )**

**Baran Bo Odar & Jantje Friese (They created the series "DARK" that inspired me to write this fanfic)**

**AND YOU!**

Thank you all for reading and taking part of this adventure. I hope you enjoyed! 


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